There’s nothing quite like the spectacle of the most hated group of people in Australia banning hate! Politicians!
Anthony Albanese’s bill to combat antisemitism will pass parliament in coming days despite an 11th-hour hurdle thrown up by opposition MPs harbouring concerns over proposed new powers that would allow the government to proscribe and ban “hate groups”.
Despite the laws giving Labor the power to crack down on Hizb ut-Tahrir after years of Coalition pressure for the radical Islamic group to be listed as a terrorist organisation, fears were shared by opposition MPs on Monday afternoon that the reforms could have unintended consequences.
While the Liberal party room ticked off on the laws with amendments, the Nationals were understood to still be considering their final position.
The Australian understands a key concern goes to the thresholds in proscribing a hate group, with the legislation stating an organisation could be prohibited in order to “protect the Australian community against social, economic, psychological and physical harm”.
This is only going to drive these groups underground. But let’s not let sense get in the way of symbolism.
The Greens are presenting some logical arguments, but they are also making gigs of themselves.
The anti-Israel Greens have shocked Australian Jews and families of Bondi terror victims after using parliament’s official condolences to claim “powerful forces” are using the massacre for political ends and that the attack could have happened to gay and trans people or Muslims.
By ‘powerful forces,’ they presumably mean the Israeli lobby, which is the second-most-powerful in Canberra, behind the US.
It’s not anti-semitism to resist that kind of foreign influence. And it is probably fair to say that there is wider and deeper scepticism of Islam in Australia than there is of Judaism or Jews.
But Jews haven’t resorted to violence, even if Israel has.
I don’t see how genital mobility relates to the issue at all. Is there a foreign war about it?
Creating politicised blocs of minority groups without reference to reality is about as racist, sexist and phobic as it gets. You go, Greens.
The bill should be dumped. Carry on with the gun buyback.
