What you need to know about Australia’s new firearms and hate laws
Australia’s Federal Parliament has passed landmark changes to firearms and hate speech laws, here’s what you need to know.
Two separate Bills – one relating to hate speech and migration, and the other to customs and gun laws – passed Parliament during an emergency sitting session on Tuesday.
The changes were drafted in response to the Bondi terror attack, where 15 people were killed by two gunmen in an alleged ISIS-inspired attack on December 14.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Both pieces of legislation are now set to undergo Royal Assent - with the gun reforms due for further negotiations with the states and territories - before they are enshrined into law and take effect.
Hate, customs changes
Preachers and leaders – including visiting speakers – promoting hate will be subject to a new aggravated offence under the changes. It has a maximum penalty of 10 to 12 years imprisonment, depending on the severity of the offence.
The AFP Minister – currently the Home Affairs Minister – has a new framework to proscribe organisations as hate groups, while the threshold for listing a hate group has also been lowered.
For example, if an organisation has “praised” conduct that would be a hate crime, and there is an unacceptable risk this might lead others to do the same, it may be listed as hate group.
Associating with listed hate groups, even in an informal capacity, is now a criminal offence.
This includes people who recruit members; participate, receive or provide any form of financial or training support; or direct activities, along with members of the listed organisation
The maximum penalties for these offences range from 7 to 15 years imprisonment.
Previously, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke specifically singled out the now-disbanded neo-Nazi Nationalist Socialist Network and Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia as being captured by these laws.
Adults who encourage a child to use force or violence towards a group, or share violent extremist material, via a “carriage service” - like the internet or a phone - with a child, will be subject to two new aggravated grooming offences.
Hate symbol offences have also been strengthened, expanding the definition to include symbols of banned hate groups, and allowing an offence to be proved by showing a person was “reckless”, instead of requiring proof of knowledge.
Existing powers to direct people to remove symbols from public display will now also apply online.
Violent extremist material and banned hate symbols will be prohibited from being taken in and out of Australia. People who breach these restrictions will face severe penalties.
Migration changes
The Home Affairs Minister now has dramatically larger powers to revoke or refuse visas of people with extremist views coming to Australia. For individuals whose visas are refused, they will be permanently banned from returning to Australia.
Both migration and hate speech laws will be reviewed every two years by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and the Opposition Leader consulted on both the listing and delisting of hate groups, following negotiations with the Coalition.
Firearms changes
A national gun buyback scheme, co-ordinated by the Federal Government, is the centrepiece of Labor’s gun control measures, and will be funded on a 50/50 basis by the Commonwealth and states.
A digital National Firearms Register will also be streamlined to fast-track police checks across states, while gun applicants will be subject to stricter background checks via the AusCheck system, the national background checking agency.
It will allow for gun applicants to be rejected on the basis on security risk, rather than criminal record.
Spent, pardoned or quashed convictions may be disclosed, in limited circumstances, during this process to Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) or the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC).
Non-citizens will be banned from access to guns, and while the imports of dangerous weapons, including assisted-repeating and straight-pull firearms, will be restricted.
Originally published as What you need to know about Australia’s new firearms and hate laws
