Antinuclear

Political Futures: Stronger Progressive United Front to Broaden the Hate Speech Legislation

Oxfam Australia, 14 January 2026 Denis Bright, https://theaimn.net/political-futures-stronger-progressive-united-front-to-broaden-the-hate-speech-legislation/

The far-right of Australian politics and the LNP, with the support of the Murdoch Press, have had a field day during the summer break to foster a commitment against hate speech. The tragic events at Bondi have been fully exploited for political advantage without reference to the underlying mental health state of advocates of antisemitism.

The Albanese Government is responding productively by incorporating a ban on hate speech with new gun control legislation. The forthcoming legislative actions are still in a speculative phase and are likely to be amended in parliamentary processes (ABC News, 13 January 2026):

In short: 

A draft of Labor’s new hate speech bill, seen by the ABC, creates a new federal offence making it illegal to publicly promote or incite racial hatred where the conduct would cause a reasonable person to feel intimidated, harassed or fear violence. 

But it includes a narrow defence where the speech, writing or other form of public gesture is solely quoting religious texts for teaching or discussion. 

What’s next?

Parliament has been recalled to sit for two days next week to debate the wide–ranging bill, which also includes changes to gun laws proposed in the wake of the Bondi attack. 

A draft of the Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill, seen by ABC News creates a new federal offence making it illegal to publicly promote or incite racial hatred where the conduct would cause a reasonable person to feel intimidated, harassed or fear violence.

The legislation includes a narrow defence where the speech, writing or other form of public gesture was solely quoting religious texts for the purpose of religious teaching or discussion.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday used the Old Testament of the Bible to explain the carve out, saying the laws would set a “principles-based test” for conduct and speech that incited racial hatred toward another person or group.

“I encourage you to read the Old Testament and see what’s there and see if you outlaw that, what would occur,” he said.

“So, we need to be careful – we consulted with faith groups, not just with the Jewish community. 

“We want to make sure there’s the broadest possible support for this legislation but we also want to make sure that there aren’t unintended consequences of the legislation.”

Our Prime Minister’s concerns about some of the edicts from the Old Testament are highly relevant.

The Old Testament justified the historical invasion of the seven nations of Canaan by the Kingdom of Israel in ancient times.

For cities outside the immediate Promised Land, Israel was commanded to offer terms of peace first. Only if the city refused were they to engage in military action (Deuteronomy 20:10-15). This is straight out of President Trump’s ultimatums to countries like Mexico and Venezuela in this latter-day exceptional era.

Later prophets like Isaiah and Hosea criticized “militarism” when it shifted from trusting in God to trusting in “chariots and horses” (Isaiah 31:1).

With the approach of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, quotes from the Old Testament might fall into the category of hate speech as shown by these quotes from the Holiness Code of Leviticus:

• Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”
• Leviticus 20:13: This verse repeats the prohibition but adds a legal penalty: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death.”

The cultural exceptionalism promoted in the Old Testament can be used to justify contemporary political excesses including multi-trillion-dollar spending on militarism and tolerance of the growing wealth divide in developed middle powers which fosters support for far-right political agendas as a diversionary response to social tensions.

Progressive Australian politics has taken a battering in the summer break. Before the break, Australian conservative politics was in disarray as the National Party abandoned commitment to zero carbon emission targets and Barnaby Joyce defected to One Nation from his New England electorate.

The hate legislation and its additional gun control protocols are an opportunity to set the balance right again.

When Australian conservatives are on another far, far-right tidal wave, Labor must fight back in defence of the relevance of a majority centre-left government. Good political communication can tame political tidal waves. Commitment to the exceptional values of the US Global Alliance reversed the initial swing to Labor at the 1961 Australian elections as voters looked to the skies for the arrival of those F-111 fighter bombers from General Dynamics that arrived over a decade later.

In the midst of the strategic storm at the 1966 national election, fifteen federal electorates defied the national trend after days of saturation media coverage of President Johnson’s (LBJ) visit.

In the normally conservative federal electorate of Dawson based on the Mackay Reion in Queensland, local member and economist Dr Rex Patterson secured a 13.4 percent swing to Labor after preferences to consolidate a 11.4 percent swing to Labor in the Dawson byelection earlier in 1966.

Dr. Rex Patterson was totally committed to needs-based policies to promote regional and northern development to overcome fifteen years of LNP control of the seat, which was formed in 1949.

At the minor Moranbah polling booth in Dawson on the boundary with the Capricornia electorate, One Nation tied with the LNP to gain 25 percent of the primary vote. This was converted to a landslide result of 63.1 percent of the vote to the LNP after preferences from far-right parties.

This rise of the far-right in regional Australia and disadvantaged outer metro electorates is embedded in social and economic tensions. Shrill populist rhetoric with the support of most mainstream commercial media networks diverts attention away from real solutions to these tensions as noted by the structural analysis of Greece’s former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis:

It is for the Albanese Government to restore the political balance with a United Front with progressive independents and Green senators to broaden the proposed hate legislation into bans on all forms of discriminatory speech (Gay News 28 August 2024):

The commitment of the Albanese Government to improved living standards might rally support again for the 2028 elections requires a renewed effort in regional electorates like Dawson, Capricornia, Flynn, Hinker and Wide Bay and in those disadvantaged federal electorates in Outer Metro areas which were retained by the LNP in 2025.  

Ironically, Labor’s best booth in Dawson was in the Hamilton Island Polling booth with local enrolment of younger resort workers:

In researching this article, I came across the achievements of Dr Rex Patterson in winning and retaining the federal seat of Dawson between 1996 and 1975. I was not aware of the extent to which the Dawson electorate defied the national mood in 1966.  

The near impossible can be achieved with the right style of political communication as achieved when a regional electorate defied the vast resources of Queensland’s National Party during the Joh era by a commitment to solutions and needs-based agendas for change and consensus-building in challenging times.

January 17, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics | Leave a comment