New bill a ‘step in the right direction’

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has welcomed the passing of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 as a “step in the right direction”.

The legislation introduces aggravated offences for preachers and leaders promoting hate, enhanced deportation powers and proscribes a new category of hate groups including the neo-Nazi Nationalist Socialist Network and Hizb ut-Tahrir. The Senate passed the bill 38 to 22 late on Tuesday night with Liberal support.

Three Nationals crossed the floor to oppose the bill after an amendment put forward by Senator Bridget McKenzie to have it referred to a committee was defeated.

“This bill is another substantial step towards achieving effective laws against the deliberate promotion of hatred of groups or individuals based on their skin colour or national or ethnic origin,” said ECAJ president Daniel Aghion.

“Even though the creation of a criminal offence to that effect was deleted from the bill, a new legal regime has been established to enable the government to proscribe extremist hate groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir and neo-Nazi organisations.”

Aghion also welcomed other positive changes in the bill, including the widening of laws against the display of hate symbols and tougher penalties for existing hate crimes, such as the use of carriage services – including social media – to menace, harass or cause offence.

“No legislation is perfect, but the provisions of this new legislation represent a substantial achievement,” he said.

During Tuesday night’s question time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese conceded the hate speech reforms were “not as strong as we would have liked in tackling antisemitism” following the removal of a proposed racial vilification offence that lacked support from both the Coalition and the Greens.

Questioned by Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender, Albanese also finally acknowledged that “radical Islamic extremism is a major problem”.

“We know that hate preachers can cause a real problem in distorting Islam and creating a circumstance where people are full of hate,” Albanese said.

“We saw an expression of hate motivated by ISIS, an idealogy that isn’t about any state, it’s about an Islamic caliphate around the world.”

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley described the final legislation as “narrowed, strengthened and properly focused on keeping Australians safe”, whilst Labor MP Josh Burns attributed the removal of racial vilification provisions to Liberal Party opposition.

“The vilification clauses that should have been originally attached to these bills had to be taken out because the Liberal Party refused to support serious vilification laws in this place,” Burns said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said the reforms advance the government’s implementation of antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal’s recommendations.

“However, this legislation does not reflect one key recommendation,” namely the dumped racial vilification offence proposal, she said. “Those opposite have walked away from a key ask from the special envoy and a key ask of so many in the Jewish community at this time.”

A review by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security into the laws last week received submissions from a number of Jewish community groups.