PM calls for unity as Greens, Coalition reject ‘unsalvageable’ Bondi Bill

Anthony Albanese has no clear pathway to passing snap reforms drafted in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, after the Greens and the Coalition ruled out supporting them in their current form.

Parliamentarians will return to Canberra next week after the Prime Minister ordered them back early to pass the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026.

The behemoth omnibus Bill proposes sweeping changes to speech, security, migration and gun laws, and underpins the federal government’s response to the Bondi attack.

But Mr Albanese needs to partner with either the Greens or Coalition to pass the legislation through the Senate. Both have rejected swathes of it.

Speaking to media in flood-ravaged Queensland, Mr Albanese said that it was “a moment for national unity”.

“This is a moment where people should be coming forward in good faith and putting forward suggestions, engaging constructively,” he told reporters.

Referring to the Coalition’s demands to recall parliament and pass legislation before Christmas, he said it was “extraordinary that they are now saying it is being rushed”.

“People have dismissed this legislation that they call for without even reading it, and have made comments that are just not right,” Mr Albanese said.

He urged the parliament come together for a “unanimous decision” and called on “all members and senators to engage constructively”.

Earlier, Sussan Ley declared the legislation “unsalvageable” in a press conference all-but refusing to pass it.

“Laws of this seriousness demand precision, confidence and clarity,” she said, adding that the government had instead offered “confusion and contradiction”.

“Now, the opposition will continue to scrutinise this legislation carefully but from what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable.

“As it stands, the government’s proposal is half-baked and Australians deserve far better.”

The Opposition Leader said the Coalition would seek to “advance our comprehensive and practical package of measures” next week as a counter.

The Coalition’s tweaks, according to her, “will tackle anti-Semitism head on in education, the arts and society more broadly, and critically enshrine a definition of anti-Semitism in law” and are in line with “recommendations of the government’s own anti-Semitism envoy”.

“Under our package, our message to those who preach hatred, who preach radical Islamic extremist hatred, glorify terrorism or incite violence, it’s very clear – if you’re not an Australian citizen, you will be deported and if you are an Australian citizen, you will be arrested,” Ms Ley said.

“That is what we will be seeking to achieve when the parliament returns.

“The parliament has to eradicate anti-Semitism and remove radical Islam. Those are our tests.”

A short time after, Australia’s peak Jewish body urged the Coalition to accept Labor’s Bill as is, saying a “wholesale rejection is not warranted”.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said the opposition should not let “the perfect to become the enemy of the good”.

“Some of the Opposition’s criticisms of the Bill are valid and repeat concerns which we ourselves have expressed about the Bill’s shortcomings,” Mr Wertheim said in a statement.

“However, there are also some important positives in the Bill, including the introduction of a new listing regime to proscribe extremist hate organisations.

“The ECAJ would urge the Coalition not to allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.

“By all means seek to amend the Bill to remove its shortcomings, but a wholesale rejection of the Bill would not at all be warranted.

“In our view, the defeat of the Bill would be a retrograde step.”

Meanwhile, the Greens have said they would not back the Bill because the anti-hate elements were not inclusive enough.

“The Greens won’t be supporting this Bill in its current form,” Senator Mehreen Faruqi told reporters at Parliament House.

“The legacy of the horrific and appalling violence in Bondi cannot be the undermining of political, civil, and human rights, or a law that can be weaponised against people who use their conscience to speak out against human rights abuses and atrocities in this country, or overseas.”

She said there was a need to “tackle racism in all its forms”.

“One way of really tackling racism and hate at its roots is for the government to immediately and urgently fund and implement the National Anti-Racism Framework, which is a blueprint for how we tackle racism across society,” she said.

Fellow Greens senator David Shoebridge said it was “divisive” for the government to bring forward legislation “that protects only one religion, while leaving other religions without equal protection”.

“You cannot have national legislation that privileges one religion over others, that’s not a starting point for fair, frank, genuine reform in this space,” he said.

He warned the same “hateful ideology” directed at the Jewish community could have been directed at the LGBTQ and other vulnerable communities.

“The government has chosen, after repeated political attacks from the Coalition, to rush this legislation into parliament, and every stakeholder meeting we have raises fresh concerns and issues with this legislation,” he said.

“The Coalition now is complaining about that, but it was the Coalition who ran a weeks long political campaign to put us in this situation and it shows how the toxic politics of the Coalition being responded to like this by the government, does no one any good and it definitely doesn’t progress the national interest.”

Teal MP Monique Ryan said Australia’s response to the Bondi massacre would “reflect on us as a country”.

“The legislation we’re debating has been developed hastily: that’s what the Opposition demanded,” she said.

“I’d be prepared to stay in Canberra for long as needed for us all to work together to make it better.”

Ms Ryan said it would be a “sad reflection” if parliament could not work together on reforms.

“I hope that that’s not who we have become.”