00:00There's a couple of different concerns and they're coming from both within politics
00:06and outside of.
00:08The parliament is being recalled early to pass through these hate speech laws and some
00:12gun control laws.
00:14It's been recalled early largely because of public pressure but also following a large
00:19amount of pressure from the coalition, namely Susan Lee who demanded the parliament be recalled
00:25before Christmas.
00:27Now there is criticism that the government is rushing through these laws too quickly
00:32and that there hasn't been enough time to consult and those calls are coming from within the
00:36coalition itself as well.
00:39National Senate leader Bridget McKenzie this morning said the opposition didn't have enough
00:43time to look through the proposed legislation.
00:47She accused the Prime Minister of playing politics with the bill and said that officials in government
00:52departments weren't able to give answers about what the potential impacts of these law
00:56changes would be.
00:58More broadly, the Nationals are critical of the proposed changes to gun reforms.
01:06They say that responsible, law-abiding gun holders are being punished for the actions of a couple
01:13of extremist terrorists.
01:16Matt Canavan and Andrew Hastie, also opposition members, have expressed concerns that the hate
01:22speech laws are going too far and that they may encroach on people's freedom of speech and
01:28religion.
01:28Multiple Liberal sources have told the ABC that it's looking like there will be a bit of a
01:34divide in the party room over where to land on these proposed laws.
01:38There's an uneasiness about some of the thresholds in criminalising the promotion of racial vilification.
01:48There's divided opinions on what to do there.
01:50Outside of politics, however, there's also been critiques of this bill.
01:54The Australian Lawyers Alliance have added to the calls that there haven't been enough
01:58time to consult.
01:59They say feedback on the bill due in two days isn't enough time to look into critical details
02:04and could lead to unwanted consequences.
02:07While the Australian Federation of Islamic Council has also joined in the calls, they're worried
02:15that there's not enough protections for religious groups within the laws.
02:19There's protections for race and ethnicity, but not religion.
02:22And they say that Muslims are being increasingly the victims of Islamophobia and there's not
02:29enough there.
02:30So it puts the government in a difficult position.
02:32They were pushed into sort of calling back Parliament early.
02:37Now they're being criticised for rushing the draft bill through, but this is all going
02:41to be up for debate next week.
02:43Isabella, thank you.
02:44Thanks.
Comments