Month after Bondi Hanukkah attack, Australian MPs pass stricter gun, hate crime laws

SYDNEY — Australia’s parliament voted in favor of tougher hate crime and gun laws Tuesday, five weeks after gunmen targeting Jewish people on Bondi Beach killed 15 people.

Lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate backed the legislation in response to the December 14 shooting at the famous Sydney beach.

Sajid Akram and his son Naveed targeted Jews attending the Hanukkah event in an ISIS-inspired attack on December 14, the nation’s worst mass shooting in 30 years and the worst antisemitic attack outside Israel in decades. Sajid was killed by police during the attack, while Naveed was shot but survived.

The attack has sparked national soul-searching about antisemitism, anger over the failure to shield Jewish Australians from harm, and promises to protect the country with stiffer legislation.

“The terrorists had hate in their hearts, but they also had high-powered rifles in their hands,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told parliament.

“We’re taking action on both — tackling antisemitism, tackling hate, and getting dangerous guns off our streets,” he added.

Legislative reforms on guns and hate speech were voted on separately.

The hate speech legislation toughens laws and penalties for people seeking to spread hate and radicalization, or to promote violence.

It creates aggravated offenses for offenders who are preachers, other leaders, or adults seeking to radicalize children.

The reform also makes it easier to reject or cancel visas for people suspected of terrorism or espousing hatred on the basis of race, color or origin.

On firearms, Australia will set up a national gun buyback scheme, tighten rules on imports of firearms and expand background checking for gun permits to allow input from intelligence services.

The legislation was debated in a special session of parliament, ahead of a national day of mourning on Thursday for the Bondi Beach victims.

Albanese has also vowed to form a royal commission to investigate the massacre, saying that it will investigate the nature, prevalence and drivers of antisemitism in general, as well as the circumstances of the Bondi attack.

A royal commission, which is the most powerful form of government-commissioned inquiry that can be held in Australia, has the power to summon witnesses and request documents as evidence. It will be led by former High Court judge Virginia Bell, Albanese said.

A report is due by December 14, which will be a year to the day since the shooting.

Australia’s 120,000-strong Jewish community has long complained that Albanese hasn’t done enough to protect them from rising antisemitism following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and that his critical position on Israel has emboldened pro-Palestinian activists to target Jewish institutions. Albanese’s occasional statements of support for the community after the many attacks on Jews in the past two years have frequently been met with cynicism.

Many in Australia’s Jewish community say the government, and Albanese in particular, “abandoned” them, arguing that clear warning signs were ignored in the lead-up to the Bondi massacre.

Since 2023, the country has seen successive marches and protests that have included antisemitic rhetoric, as well as attacks on synagogues, schools and homes. In one instance, two nurses threatened to kill Jewish patients at their hospital. In another, law enforcement discovered a trailer filled with explosives, said to have been intended to cause a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue.