‘Ridiculous’ for Coalition to oppose hate speech legislation in wake of Bondi attack, Burke says
Home affairs minister Tony Burke said the government could not have a “more serious impetus for action” on hate speech laws after the Bondi terror attack, saying lawmakers in Canberra should not be wasting time to act.
Burke spoke to RN Breakfast just days before the Labor government is set to introduce new legislation in the wake of the mass shooting. The Coalition has said that timeline is too rushed, expressing significant reservations about the bill despite calling for an early return to parliament for weeks.
Burke the about-face was “ridiculous” this morning:
These arguments that are coming from the Liberal party now, having spent … week after week calling for the early return of parliament and saying how urgently we need to legislate, to now say, ‘oh no, you’re rushing us’, is just ridiculous. …
I can’t for the life of me see how the Liberal party have got themselves to the point where they’re now effectively opposing the legislation.
Burke was asked about a neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, that claimed it would disband before the hate speech legislation is brought to parliament. The home affairs minister said:
Any day the Nazis take a step backwards is a good day. And if there was ever evidence that this legislation is urgent and that we’ve got the balance right in what we’ve put forward, it’s that immediately on seeing it, the Nazis announced that they’re going to disband …
None of this means that the hate in these individuals goes away, but it is making it more and more difficult for them to organise.
Key events
Adeshola Ore
Iranian Australians left distraught with no confirmation their family is safe
Almost a week into Iran’s communication blackout, Iranian Australian activist Mohammad Hashemi received a call from his home country.
His brother, late on Tuesday, relayed that his family were safe. But relief receded quickly as he detailed the horror of the Iranian authorities’ response to the country’s escalating mass anti-regime demonstrations.
“He saw with his eyes, many people were killed in front of him and how they were just shooting everyone,” Hashemi told Guardian Australia.
When I heard the stories, what happened to people, I was crying about the situation and what’s going on in our country.
Read more here:
Follow along with our Iran live blog for updates
The situation in Iran continues to develop today. Follow along with our Iran live blog at the link below.
Earlier this week, the Australian government advised any citizens in the country to leave Iran immediately as commercial options to depart become more limited. The Australian embassy’s operations there are suspended:
We continue to advise do not travel to Iran. If you choose to remain in Iran, you’re responsible for your own safety. Be prepared to shelter in place for an extended period. Make sure you have supplies of water, food and medication.
Barnaby Joyce says One Nation won’t support gun reforms, calling proposals ‘obnoxious’
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce is speaking on RN now, saying the party will not support legislation before parliament next week. He said the gun reform legislation would punish “recreational pig shooters in country areas” that had nothing to do with the Bondi attack.
He said:
This is not so much an omnibus but a bus crash. It is a combination and permutation of a whole range of issues …
I think that there is something quite obnoxious with dragging them into it when they have done nothing but obeyed the law. And that is how we see it out here.
Joyce said residents in city centres like Sydney would not be affected by gun legislation as they don’t generally own guns, “so they can be easily cajoled into thinking this is a solution”.
He also lamented that for many people who owned multiple guns, they were family heirlooms handed down generation to generation, “like your lounge suite”.
Shadow minister maintains proposed hate speech laws ‘rushed’, but rejects claim of hypocrisy
Susan McDonald, the shadow minister for resources, said the Coalition has not yet decided on its support for the hate speech laws and gun reform, but maintained that the effort had been “so rushed and so little consulted on”.
McDonald spoke to RN Breakfast, saying Tony Burke’s claims that the opposition had been hypocritical were “ridiculous”. She said:
Absolutely we’ve called for legislation to be brought forward. We’ve called for the parliament to be reformed because it is absolutely critical that we eradicate antisemitism in this country and that we remove radical Islam. That should be our laser-like focus.
This legislation does neither of those things, and recalling parliament is not a free pass to passing bad legislation.
She added she had criticisms of gun reform legislation, saying the broad scope of the proposed bills were an “omnibus bill” that was seeking “to do too much”.
These laws are nationally significant. They will impact every Australian. So we think that it’s reasonable that more time be taken to make sure that they are fit for purpose and that there are no unintended consequences.
Burke says he will accept families’ wishes on Bondi footbridge, but thought it would be removed
Tony Burke added that he supported families’ and victims’ wishes regarding the footbridge used in the Bondi attack, but said his feelings early on were that the bridge would be removed.
He told RN:
I accept whatever the families want, but I’ve got to say that I actually had remarked to some people very early on following the attack that I thought we would end up with that bridge being removed.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said yesterday he thought the bridge would be a “ghoulish reminder” if it’s left standing, saying he believes it should be torn down. Waverley council will debate the structure’s future at a meeting later tonight.
‘Ridiculous’ for Coalition to oppose hate speech legislation in wake of Bondi attack, Burke says
Home affairs minister Tony Burke said the government could not have a “more serious impetus for action” on hate speech laws after the Bondi terror attack, saying lawmakers in Canberra should not be wasting time to act.
Burke spoke to RN Breakfast just days before the Labor government is set to introduce new legislation in the wake of the mass shooting. The Coalition has said that timeline is too rushed, expressing significant reservations about the bill despite calling for an early return to parliament for weeks.
Burke the about-face was “ridiculous” this morning:
These arguments that are coming from the Liberal party now, having spent … week after week calling for the early return of parliament and saying how urgently we need to legislate, to now say, ‘oh no, you’re rushing us’, is just ridiculous. …
I can’t for the life of me see how the Liberal party have got themselves to the point where they’re now effectively opposing the legislation.
Burke was asked about a neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, that claimed it would disband before the hate speech legislation is brought to parliament. The home affairs minister said:
Any day the Nazis take a step backwards is a good day. And if there was ever evidence that this legislation is urgent and that we’ve got the balance right in what we’ve put forward, it’s that immediately on seeing it, the Nazis announced that they’re going to disband …
None of this means that the hate in these individuals goes away, but it is making it more and more difficult for them to organise.
Good morning
Nick Visser here to take you through the morning’s news. Let’s dive in.
Peter Malinauskas defends criticism of Randa Abdel-Fattah
Caitlin Cassidy
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, says his criticism of Palestinian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah is “not about politics” but “examining your conscience and doing what you think is right, consistent with a few basic principles”.
On Wednesday, lawyers acting for Abdel-Fattah served a formal concerns notice for defamation on the premier, suggesting the fallout from her cancellation from the 2026 event – which is itself is now cancelled – is far from over.
Appearing on the ABC’s 7.30 program on Wednesday evening, the premier took particular aim at Abdel-Fattah’s comments on social media in 2024 that Zionists had “no right” to cultural safety, describing it as a “pretty extraordinary opinion for someone to have when they also seek to be able to have freedom of speech for themselves”.
Malinauskas said he began to lobby for Abdel-Fattah’s removal from the festival around Christmas, when he had “a number” of conversations with the board chair, leading to him penning a letter to the board on 2 January, “advocating” his point of view.
Asked if he would be prepared to go to court over his comments on Abdel-Fattah, the premier said he had to “examine my conscience and do what I believe is right”.
Ms Randa Abdel-Fattah will do what she will do and she’s entitled to take whatever action she likes but my responsibilities is to make sure that particularly in a time like this post-Bondi, we aren’t escalating tensions in this country unnecessarily and more than that, when we express opinions we’re able to do so respectfully.
Read our full story here:
Victorian student data exposed in hack
Caitlin Cassidy
The personal data of current and former Victorian students has been exposed in a cyber-attack, the state’s department of education has confirmed.
On Wednesday, an external actor gained access to the information of Victorian public school students via a school’s network, including their name, email address, school name, year level and encrypted password.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the department said it was working with cyber experts and government agencies to investigate the breach, as well as communicating with schools “to ensure this does not disrupt students when they start the 2026 school year”.
The safety and privacy of students is our top priority, we have identified the point of the breach and have put safeguards in place, including the temporary disabling of systems to ensure no further data is able to be accessed.
There is no evidence to suggest that the data accessed has been released publicly or shared with other third parties.
The incident has been reported to the relevant commonwealth government agencies.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action shortly.
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, told ABC’s 7.30 last night that his criticism of Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is “not about politics” but “examining your conscience and doing what you think is right, consistent with a few basic principles”. The Palestinian Australian writer and academic has threatened to sue Malinauskas for defamation in the fallout from the cancellation of the Adelaide writers’ festival. More coming up.
The personal data of current and former Victorian students – including names, email addresses, school names, year levels and encrypted passwords – has been exposed in a cyber attack, the state’s department of education confirmed last night.
Let’s get into it.
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