Push for migration, hate speech shift after massacre
The government is under pressure to bolster hate speech laws after pledging to strengthen migration rules to ensure people with antisemitic views can’t settle in the country following the Bondi massacre.
Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli prays with Rabbi Levi Wolff Pic Mick Tsikas/AAP
Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said federal Labor’s response to Sunday’s attack would be released in the coming days and weeks, including a review of migration policies.
“(We’ll) make sure that they’re appropriate and that they can weed out and stop people who have antisemitic or racist views, that may incite violence in Australia and ensure that people like that can’t migrate to our country,” he told ABC TV on Thursday.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley called a snap shadow cabinet meeting for Thursday afternoon to consider a “practical” package developed by the coalition’s task force on anti-Semitism.
The measures are designed to eradicate hatred against Jewish people and disrupt extremist networks.
Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, whose electorate takes in Bondi, has urged the government and opposition to support changes to hate speech laws she proposed in 2024.
Her bill would criminalise the promotion of hatred.
“Before (Jewish people) were attacked, they were afraid,” Ms Spender said.
“Afraid because for too long, fringe extremist groups and individuals have promoted and glorified violence towards them online and in person, and they have done so with impunity. Enough is enough.”
Police found two homemade Islamic State flags in a car registered to one of the shooters, Naveed Akram, who was born in Australia.
The 24-year-old is facing 59 charges, including 15 counts of murder, over his involvement in the nation’s deadliest massacre since Port Arthur in 1996.
The other gunman, his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram, arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa before transferring to a partner visa in 2001.
Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli earlier said slogans shouted in a massive pro-Palestinian march on Sydney Harbour Bridge in August fomented a climate that led to the Bondi Beach attack, which targeted Jewish Hanukkah celebrations.
At a memorial dedicated to the victims, Mr Chikli said the massacre was not a surprising turn of events.
“The writing was on the wall in big letters, the warning signs had been flashing for the past two years,” he told a congregation at Chabad Bondi late on Wednesday.
Former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has called for a royal commission into antisemitism, adding he wanted “accountability and action” from the government.
“We have a right to live in this country free, free of that intimidation and hate and harassment … and if the prime minister is not going to take actions to rectify the situation, who will, who can?” he said.
But Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the last thing the nation needed was the delays associated with royal commissions.
The government has continued to “act and act and act” on combating rising antisemitism, including outlawing hate speech and symbols, he said.
By: Farid Farid, Grace Crivellaro and Tess Ikonomou/AAP
Too late, too little!!!
Never again will always be again.
Antisemitism will not disappear; and thats why Herzl’s Zionism came to light: The only hope the Yehudim could count on was, and will be, is to have their own Country with their own Defence
First Christianity knew that, and then Islam also learned the power of creating and preserving the Yehudim as The Eternal Wondering Jew: Leave the Jews without Defence and they could always be used as the Ideal Enemy to incite the masses against the aims of the never dying wouid be Dictators”s struggle for Supremacy.
What better Enemy to incite the masses than this Wondering Jew: The Jew was and is the Enemy to remain not only Landless, and Defenceless, but one that always stood out, and thus always readying itself to be hammered down.
Tony Burke is a fork tongue snake. He typifies that class of politician who will say whatever the audience wants to hear., whatever will get him into a place of power. Given the large minority of Muslims in the electorate from where he gets his votes, he is the last person who should be trusted with this portfolio.