24-01-2026: The Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026 has been rammed through the federal Australian parliament putatively in response to the alleged Bondi Beach terror attack on December 14. After it became clear that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) government’s original bill did not have enough support to pass, the ALP carved out the gun buyback into a separate bill and dropped some of the most contentious anti-racial vilification sections. The ALP and the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) have since agreed to a compromise, but the National Party of Australia (NPA) remains opposed. The NPA is looking to protect its rural and regional constituencies, who need access to some firearms to run livestock operations on their properties. However, even the revised bill, if passed, will hand a government minister almost unlimited power to list, or unlist, a “hate” organisation which would then be proscribed by law.[1]

Rushed legislation

The legislation, with potentially far-reaching consequences for society, has been shoved through parliament at a rapid rate. The ALP claimed that its bill would: criminalise antisemitic, hateful and extremist content, introduce new powers to allow for the cancellation or refusal of visas for those who “spread hate” and establish a National Gun Buyback Scheme.[2] The original bill would have made it illegal to “publicly promote or incite hatred” or “disseminate ideas of superiority or hatred towards another person or group of people based on their race, colour, or national or ethnic origin. It would have created new offences for “extremist preachers”, and those found advocating or threatening violence against groups, with potential penalty of 12 years imprisonment. Anyone threatening force or violence against persons or a group, as well as their property or a person close to them, would face a jail term from five to seven years.[3] The terms are vague and broad, and “hate speech” could be interpreted in different ways.

In the first place, the alleged massacre on Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 14 last year was almost certainly a staged false flag.[4] It followed multiple staged false flag “antisemitic” graffiti and attempts to firebomb synagogues before the 2025 federal election.[5] It is difficult to confirm definitively whether people actually perished in the Bondi Beach incident. The mainstream media narrative has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. From the fake blood applied to Arsen Ostrovsky, to the dodgy ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) flag displayed on the windscreen of the alleged shooters, to the videos of the alleged shooters practicing in the New South Wales countryside, to the ASIO investigation into one of them for ISIS links in 2019, to the alleged hero who is a supporter of the former ISIS “President” of Syria AND President Trump – the whole affair is extremely suspect. Rather than an outburst of irrational “Islamist” violence, it is much more likely that it was contrived to whip up more fervour for war on Iran, more bans on protests, and further restrictions on free speech and the most elementary of democratic rights.

The drive to war

Some speculate that the government had prepared the 144-page hate speech bill before the alleged attack on Bondi Beach on December 14 even took place. The whole concept of “hate speech” needing special laws to combat them is a cover for what appears to be the real agenda – removing free speech and the democratic right to protest and oppose government policy. There are already strict laws against threatening to kill or harm someone, as well as assault, battery and murder. There are already laws against racial vilification, which are some of the most stringent in the world. The government is looking to police speech for political reasons, i.e., to make it much more difficult for working people to criticise government policy, resist government crackdowns and oppose the drive to endless imperialist wars. During the fraudulent “Covid pandemic”, it was clear that the government needed to suppress free speech to enforce outrageous and illegal vaccine mandates, lockdowns and border closures. In a world which is likely heading to a global conflagration sometime this year, the suppression of protest is required.

There is not a wave of antisemitism sweeping Australia and nor is there a wave of Islamophobia. The violence that is present in society is much more related to the skyrocketing cost of living, desperately unaffordable housing, and out of reach healthcare. There has been a pro-Palestine movement over the last two years, which has not attacked the Jewish faith specifically, but has not opposed imperialist war either. Its clumsy formulations of defending Palestine against Israel in a binary manner has not helped its just cause and has allowed the state to accuse it of promoting hate. At the same time, conservative supporters of the Zionist state of Israel have used “antisemitism” to restrict genuine and real criticisms of the war crimes of the Israeli state, carried out as a proxy force of US imperialism in the Middle East. Unfortunately, to differing degrees, both the pro-Palestine movement and the pro-Israel defence have used a hatred of the “other side” to push their barrows. Meanwhile, the drive to world war continues.

Regardless, no one should be sent to jail for five years for a social media post, even one which is extremely offensive. Nor should the government have the power to make illegal any organisation that “promotes hate”. The government is claiming that it will only seek to proscribe organisations such as the Nazi National Socialist Network (NSN) and the Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir, but this is a fig leaf. If it does have such a power, it could ban political parties, Unions, environmental organisations, anti-war groups, welfare advocates and more. The state should not have the power to regulate speech in public, whether in the open air or online. Working people have the right to open social and political discourse, and we should defend this right from all warmongering states who try to remove it.

The capitalist state is not concerned with “social cohesion” or any other nicety. The Australian ruling class is gung-ho in marching to war behind the US empire against Iran, Russia, China and all of their allies in the Global South. The West knows it is falling further and further behind the industrial, engineering, scientific and technological power of the socialistic People’s Republic of China (PRC), and, at this rate, will never catch up. It must resort to war, terrorism and chaos while driving the cost of living for working people even higher. The war at home is inseparable from the war abroad. The masses are seeking a way out and will rise against this path. This is why a failing capitalism seeks to remove free speech, the right to protest, the right to organise, and the right to form organisations of self-defence. It cannot be allowed to succeed. REPEAL THE HATE SPEECH LAWS!  FOR FREE SPEECH AND DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS!

Workers League

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

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[1] www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/19/labor-coalition-deal-hate-speech-laws-ley-albanese (21-01-2026)

[2] www.ag.gov.au/crime/publications/fact-sheet-combatting-antisemitism-hate-and-extremism-bill-2026 (21-01-2026)

[3] www.sbs.com.au/news/article/labor-hate-speech-gun-laws-explained/kad8c071a (21-01-2026)

[4] www.redfireonline.com/2025/12/20/bondi-massacre-does-the-story-add-up/ (21-01-2026)

[5] www.redfireonline.com/2025/02/10/posturing-of-the-misled-left-enables-false-flag-anti-semitic-attacks/ (21-06-2026)

Image: http://www.engelsman.co.za