Melbourne, Jan 20 (AP) : Australia’s Parliament on Tuesday passed new gun restrictions and began debating draft anti-hate speech laws proposed after two shooters killed 15 people at a Jewish festival in Sydney last month in an attack that authorities say was inspired by the Islamic State group.
The gun laws create new restrictions on gun ownership and create a government-funded buyback programme to compensate people forced to hand in their firearms.
Anti-hate speech laws would enable hate groups that don’t fit Australia’s definition of a terrorist organisation, such as Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, to be outlawed. Hizb ut-Tahrir is already outlawed by some countries.
The government had initially planned a single bill, but separated the issues into two bills introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Both bills passed the House, and the firearms bill had been passed by the Senate by late Tuesday. The anti-hate speech bill is expected to pass into law by Wednesday.
Earlier Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told Parliament that alleged gunmen Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram wouldn’t have been allowed to possess guns under the proposed laws.
The father, who was shot dead by police during the attack on Jewish worshippers during Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach on December 14, legally owned the guns used.
His son, who was wounded, has been charged with dozens of offenses, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act over the attack.
Burke said that the Indian-born father would have been barred from gun ownership under the proposed laws because he wasn’t an Australian citizen.
The Australian-born son would also been banned, because he had come under surveillance from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, or ASIO, spy agency in 2019 over his association with suspected extremists.
“In responding to the antisemitic terror attack, we need to deal with the motivation and we need to deal with the method,” Burke told Parliament.
“We are dealing with two people there who had horrific antisemitic bigotry in their minds and in their hearts. And they had weapons they should not have had,” Burke added.
ASIO would also have a role under the proposed anti-hate speech laws in deciding which hate groups should be outlawed. Neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network has announced plans to disband rather than have its members targeted under the laws.
Parliament had been scheduled to resume for the year in February, but was brought back early to respond to Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996.
A lone shooter killed 35 people in Tasmania state that year, in a massacre that galvanised the nation into introducing tough gun laws that drastically reduced the number of rapid-fire weapons in public ownership. The government then bought back almost 7,00,000 guns.
But the states of Tasmania and Queensland and the Northern Territory are resisting the federal push for a new gun buyback, for which the states would be expected to pay half the cost.
Burke said his government would continue to negotiate with the states and territories on the buyback. (PTI)
