Free speech fears fire up Coalition resistance to hate speech bill

He expressed concern about lowering the threshold from inciting violence to promoting hate, the lack of exemptions for good-faith public discussion and the subjective nature of allowing certain racial groups to decide whether speech is offensive.

“None of us know what our views may be in the future, how we may want to express them, or whether we may need to speak out for our safety and security — or against what threat. Freedom of speech is the primary means by which people defend themselves, particularly minorities,” he said.

“We are trying to undo the damage through law. We need courage and leadership to get the law right, because freedom is rarely recovered once lost,” the frontbencher said.

Hastie announced on Wednesday he would vote against the bill because it impinged freedom of expression and religion, arguing the prime minister had shown contempt to parliamentary scrutiny by rushing the bill into parliament.

“This bill is an attack on our basic democratic freedoms,” he said.

Top Liberal MPs, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the shadow cabinet has not met, said they would spend the next few days working on amendments to the bill ahead of an emergency two-day parliamentary session next week.

But they acknowledged amendments would probably not be accepted by Labor and may not be sufficient to address free speech doubts, making it increasingly likely the Coalition would vote against the bill and leave the government to work with the Greens.

Among the MPs with concerns include Victorians James Paterson and Tim Wilson, both of whom have been free speech advocates earlier in their careers, frontbenchers Angus Taylor, Jonno Duniam and right-wingers Andrew Hastie, Michaelia Cash, Ben Small and Garth Hamilton.

The MPs say Labor’s beefed-up incitement laws passed last year have barely been tested and so the case for a much lower threshold around promotion of hatred was weak, though Labor will argue that only by banning the promotion of violence could Islamic hate preachers be captured.

Shadow cabinet will probably meet on Sunday but backbenchers will debate the bill before then.

On the Labor side, a senior government source said Albanese was happy to work with the Greens to pass the bill.

The Nationals reject some proposed sections of the bill restricting gun ownership, even though farmers are exempted from many of the limitations.

Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie said the government had crafted its bill as a distraction from its failure to tackle antisemitism and the gun reforms in particular were designed to appease Muslim constituents in western Sydney.

The free speech concerns were not shared by hawkish former Home Affairs Department secretary Mike Pezzulo.

Pezzullo, who was sacked for inappropriate behaviour reported by this masthead in 2023, said the hate speech laws probably should have been brought in after a group of men chanted antisemitic language outside the Opera House the day after Hamas’ October 7 attacks.

“[This is] the most consequential change in this area of law since 9/11,” he told a parliamentary inquiry into the laws.“It’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

Labor senator Raf Ciccone, who is chairing a parliamentary inquiry into the bill, said the Coalition was unable to form a coherent response to the proposed legislation because of its internal divisions.

“Unfortunately, there are politics being played out that I see in the media, not because of this bill, but because of their own other internal politics,” Ciccone said.

Loading

“On one hand, we [the government] get criticised for not doing enough, or wanting to recall parliament by the end of last year. And now that the parliament has been recalled, we get criticised.”

Greens MPs are deliberating their position after leader Larissa Waters spoke with Albanese on Monday afternoon. Sources within the party said a position had not been reached, but MPs were comforted by the government’s perceived willingness to extend the laws after next week’s bill passes.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.