Overview
- Department, AFP and ASIO officials faced questions on whether the draft targets conduct rather than specific phrases, with officials stressing a reasonable-person, conduct-based test.
- The draft includes a narrow defence for directly quoting religious texts for teaching, and officials said any added commentary would fall outside that protection.
- The Executive Council of Australian Jewry offered qualified support, warning about the religious-text carve-out, the absence of a recklessness standard, and gaps covering attributes such as gender identity and sexual orientation.
- Liberal backbenchers including Andrew Hastie, Garth Hamilton and Ben Small voiced concerns about impacts on freedom of conscience and religion, exposing divisions within the Coalition.
- The omnibus proposes new offences for ‘hate preachers’ and inciting hatred to intimidate or harass, criminalises membership of listed hate groups, expands visa-cancellation powers, and pairs these with firearm measures as the committee reports by Friday before next week’s debate.