Australian news and politics live: Coalition splits over Labor’s hate speech, gun reform laws after Bondi

The Coalition party room will not meet today as expected, as the Nationals prepare to split from the Liberal party to vote against large sections of the Government’s proposed hate speech laws.

Labor has secured the support of the Opposition to pass its scaled-back legislation in the Senate, targeting extremism, but Nationals Senators and some Liberals are expected to cross the floor to vote against the measures.

The split is raising fresh concerns inside the Coalition about Sussan Ley’s leadership of the Liberal Party.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud has exploded in Parliament, saying Australia does not have a gun problem, “we have a radical Islam problem”.

“The National Party and the Coalition will be opposing this bill,” Mr Littleproud said, throwing major doubt over the bill’s future.

“This is nothing more than a cheap political diversion.”

Mr Littleproud said gun reforms did not “face up to the real problem in this country, which is radical Islamist”.

“It is not the gun owners of Australia who have done this. It is radical Islam that has done this,” he added.

Mr Littlerpoud said the Nationals would support the ASIO check portion of Labors bill.

“We do not have a gun problem; we have a radical Islam problem,” Mr Littleproud said.

“The gun laws in this country actually worked.

“Those perpetrators of that evil act in Bondi actually should not have had their license in place as there was an order by the police that saw they were on a watch list.”

Mr Littleproud said this was a “process” issue and blamed authorities for not acting.

Mr Bourke said that all politicians hold a responsibility to Australians following the horrific Bondi terror attack, which targeted Jews.

“We as a Parliament have a responsibility to act decisively, to make sure Australians can be safe and feel safe,” Mr Bourke said.

“We must do everything we can to counter both the motivation and the method of the attackers.

“We must deal with both the hatred they had in their hearts and the guns they had in their hands.

“This bill is a critical step forward to addressing their methods.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Bourke on Tuesday introduced Labor’s gun reform, which forms part of a package that includes the hate speech bill, in the House of Representatives.

“It comes as a shock to most Australians that Australia now has more firearms than we had before Port Arthur nearly 30 years ago,” Mr Bourke said on Tuesday.

Mr Bourke said if this new bill had been in place before December 14, 2025, the day of the Bondi massacre, the two accused gunmen would have held “zero guns”.

“The father would have been ineligible because he was not a citizen. The firearms that they were using would not have been available to them. And the son who didn’t have a firearms license in any event, had he tried any intelligence holdings with respect to him, would have formed part of the licensing decisions,” he said.

“No one is pretending that dealing with guns deals with everything that happened at Bondi, but it does deal with the method, and we must deal with the method.”

Anthony Albanese has given a touching tribute to the late Labor strategist Tim Picton.

Mr Picton died after the 36-year-old fell victim to an alleged coward’s punch attack outside a Northbridge nightclub in late December.

The Prime Minister labelled Mr Picton as nothing short of a “remarkable man” who had the potential to sit on the front bench of Federal Parliament.

Mr Albanese expressed his condolences to his wife, Priya, and four-year-old daughter Charlotte during a tribute in the House of Representatives on Tuesday morning.

“Tim Pickton was not only very effective as a political operator. As a human being, he was remarkable. He was full of joy,” the PM said

“He loved his wife, Priya, his beautiful daughter, Charlotte, was the apple of his eye. And I want Charlotte to know just how loved her dad was.”

The PM acknowledged the “pivotal role” Mr Picton played in delivering Labor Government across state and federal elections, after being the architect of the party’s romping successes in 2021 and 2022.

“He was respected right across the state, right across the political spectrum,” the PM said.

“Due to his background, working in three states, as well as in Canberra, he was very well known, and I have no doubt that he would have one day sat on at least this front bench, had his life not been cut so short by that act of violence on December 27.”

The legislation was intended to stamp out anti-Semitism on the back of calls from Australian Jewish leaders, but has faced intense scrutiny because of its threat to free speech.

It became so divisive that Mr Albanese announced at the weekend he would split the Bondi package into two different motions, separating laws targeting gun control with the hate speech reforms and drop racial vilification offences entirely.

Mr Albanese met with Ms Ley on Monday ahead of an emergency two-day meeting of parliament, with The Nightly understanding the Liberal party had agreed to key fixes to the motion.

These include strengthening offences for hate preachers and tightening migration powers, such as refusing visa applications for extremists to come to Australia.

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Major hate speech reforms in response to the Bondi massacre are expected to pass Parliament after Labor reached an agreement with the opposition leader.

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland confirmed the Government will on Tuesday introduce the draft laws to the lower house after “constructive engagement,” indicating a deal had been struck after politicians held late night meetings.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is expected to announce the Coalition’s position later this morning, with the proposal heading to the party room.

“I don’t want to pre-empt any of those conversations, and particularly since they have been undertaken in good faith,” Ms Rowland told ABC Radio.

“I will point out that the removal of the serious vilification provisions do mean that these remaining provisions in the prohibited hate groups section do need to do a lot of work.”

Changes include cracking down on groups that voice hate against people of other faiths, bringing in stronger background checks for firearm owners, and setting up a national gun buyback scheme.