Press conference - Parliament House, Canberra

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon. Firstly, I want to give further details about the National Day of Mourning that will take place this coming Thursday 22nd of January. The theme that has been chosen by the Chabad community in Bondi is: 'light will win, a gathering of unity and remembrance'. I've said that flags in Commonwealth buildings as well as state buildings, we will ask flags be flown at half-mast and we would ask the private sector to join with that. National institutions in Canberra and in New South Wales will be illuminated on the day. And a commemorative installation, 15 Pillars of Light, will be held here in Canberra. But in other cities as well. The community are also asking that there be a mitzvah for Bondi. A mitzvah is an act of kindness or compassion. It can be helping out a neighbour, checking on them. It can be volunteering. It can be donating money. It can be essentially any act of kindness. As a part of paying tribute to the 15 Australians who lost their lives on that tragic evening at 7:01pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time, we would ask that throughout Australia there be a minute silence. And we'd ask also that broadcasting institutions, including the TV channels, if they can participate in that as well. We're also asking that people consider leaving a candle on their windowsill or on the outside of their homes or buildings at that evening as well as a tribute. This will be a very important day of mourning. It will be an opportunity for us to pay respects as a nation to those people who lost their lives.

Can I speak about as well the upcoming Parliamentary Sitting. On Monday, there will be the condolence motion. There is agreement about the wording on that, and that will take place in the House of Representatives and in the Senate.

One month ago, right here, I outlined a legislation package that would be developed that would go before the Parliament as well. We are now looking at introducing legislation on Tuesday morning to go through the House of Representatives and then for it to proceed to the Senate.

On that tragic day when two terrorists engaged in murder that cost 15 people their lives but injured many others and indeed damaged the fabric of our nation, they had hate in their hearts, but they also had guns in their arms. We wanted to legislate on both, and we've consistently called for support. And I've said that I want there to be unity of this Parliament. People, after all, had called for, pretty consistently called for Parliament to be recalled, called for hate speech to be outlawed. It's clear since then, we've engaged across the Parliament. The Greens Party have engaged in good faith and I thank them for that. And I had a discussion with Larissa Waters yesterday afternoon, where she informed me about where they had landed, that they would vote for the gun laws, but would not vote for the other parts of the legislation. In order to ensure passage of these gun laws, we will be separating out Schedule 3 and 4 of the Bill that is important to deal with customs updates, but also to have the National Gun Buyback Scheme along the model that was implemented after the Port Arthur massacre under John Howard. So, we'll separate out the bills, the gun laws will be separate, and then the laws on hate crimes and migration will proceed. But we will not be proceeding with the racial vilification provisions, because it's clear that that will not have support. We will only proceed with measures that have the support of the Parliament and are likely to receive that. And that's why we'll delay the introduction to Tuesday morning.

The Coalition need to come up with what their position is, because at the moment, they're defined by what they're against, but it's not clear what they're for. They have, up to this point, of course, called for Parliament to be recalled and then opposed it when we did it. They called for hate speech laws. When they've seen them, they're now against them. We want to know what their position is on these measures, because what we don't want to happen in this Parliament is for there to be an ongoing debate, an ongoing debate of conflict. The Opposition are so obsessed with opposing things, they've now begun to oppose themselves. And it's quite clear that in part, this has been driven by the division which is there within the Liberal Party, and the contest that's taking place openly for the leadership of the Liberal Party.

These laws, though, will still be very important. The hate crimes laws we know have led to the National Socialist Network, the Nazis, say that they would disband tomorrow. If these laws don't proceed, allowing for the listing of organisations that promote violence or hatred on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, then it will be up to those people who do not support those laws to actually outline how it is that they justify that. So, we're calling for the support of these provisions. I think it's important that Parliament deal with that this Tuesday after we deal respectfully with the condolence motion on Monday.

KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Thanks, PM. Well, next week is an important week for the Parliament. It's an important week for the Senate. Obviously, in seeking the unity that we need following the terrorist attack on Bondi Beach in December and the calls for unity that the Prime Minister has been leading, we are working across the Senate to reach agreement. As you know, the Government doesn't have a majority in the Senate, so even to sit, we need the agreement of other senators. So, over the past week we've been working across the Senate to make sure that we are reaching as much agreement as possible. As the PM said, this is a moment for the Parliament to come together, to stand together and to respond to those horrific terrorist and antisemitic attacks on Bondi Beach. We've got the opportunity to do that with legislation that has, as the PM said, been called for by the Opposition. And we need to send a very strong message, I think the Australian people expect us to, that we are able to respond to these, this terrorist attack in a responsible and mature way. The passage of the legislation that the PM has outlined today will allow that.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you confident that with the splitting of these bills and the removal of the racial vilification, or at least the delay of the racial vilification -

PRIME MINISTER: No, removing.

JOURNALIST: Removing. That with all the other aspects of the laws will pass Parliament? Are you confident in that?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, it's up to the Liberal Party who, I had another discussion with Sussan Ley this morning. I've engaged respectfully. I'm still waiting for them to say what their position is on all of this. They called for this to happen. They called for Parliament to be resumed on more than 20 occasions. On the 22nd of December they were making it very clear that the Parliament should be sitting today, they said, and passing laws today. They will have the opportunity. They will have no excuse. We know that there are some in the National Party who were saying they were against the gun law provisions. The gun laws will pass with the support of The Greens Political Party, as they have announced today. We are separating out the bills. That is something they have asked for. We are providing that opportunity for them. And the issue of the racial vilification issues has been removed from the bill as well. It is time that the politics stopped and that they stood up for what is in the national interest.

JOURNALIST: Can I confirm that will there be now two bills, one with the gun reforms and another with the hate speech provisions? And if so, have you spoken to The Greens? What indication have you had from The Greens, in fact, about their support for the Hate Speech Provisions Bill?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, they won't support that is what they have announced. But they've been upfront about what their position is. To be fair, it's not a position I agree with and not for the first time I disagree with the landing that The Greens Political Party have had. But I must say Larissa Waters has engaged constructively and honestly. She rang me yesterday afternoon and informed me of what their position was. And so, this is a way in which they can vote for the gun laws that they said they would vote for. And these gun laws are really important and there is no reason why anyone should oppose these gun laws, by the way. Let's be very clear about what they do. They amend the Customs Act to prohibit the import or export of violent extremism material, prohibited hate material or goods that contain such things. They remove the objectionable goods commercial quantity condition to allow for more severe penalties to be imposed where customs laws have been breached. They introduce a new public safety test for firearms and weapons to enable the Minister to refuse import permissions. They restrict the importation of firearms to Australian citizens only, to stop non-citizens importing weapons. And they strengthen the police certification test by removing open ended import permits. So, these are really sensible measures. They also will amend the Criminal Code to introduce new criminal offences for accessing, distributing, possessing or controlling online material for firearms and explosives manufacture. That is, we want prosecutions to occur if someone is basically looking up online how to create a bomb. Surely that is something that should be supported by everyone in the Parliament. And the other thing that it does is to strengthen, not just to have the National Gun Buyback Scheme, but to incorporate an ASIO Security Assessment and an ACIC Criminal Intelligence Assessment into background checks for people who are trying to get a gun licence. These are all really sensible measures, and I've spoken to state governments as well about making sure that their provisions of giving gun licences be only available for Australian citizens. These are common sense reforms. The actual gun licencing and those provisions remain with states and territories. That's something we do not have control of. But the things that we do control to strengthen these laws are what are in this bill. And it should receive the support of everyone in the Parliament. But it's clear that it will receive the support of a majority of Senators.

JOURNALIST: Do you have an updated timeline or plan for introducing the hate speech aspects?

PRIME MINISTER: The hate crimes legislation will continue. The racial vilification laws do not have the support of the Senate.

JOURNALIST: So, it's completely ruled out?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, they do not have the support of the Senate. We, on various things, that is what the Greens Party and the Liberal Party have made clear. So, we deal with the Parliament that we have, which is unfortunate because I note that that was one of the recommendations of the Special Envoy on Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, a clear and unambiguous recommendation. The Coalition called upon us to implement her report and recommendations in full. That is what we have sought to do, but it has not received the support that is required.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why didn't you try to do this in the first place, split the bill?

PRIME MINISTER: Because what we were doing was putting forward sensible reforms. There's no overreach in any of this. A lot of the criticism that has been there of the laws, are criticisms from people who were calling for it, such as the racial vilification laws, they were called for consistently, not just by Sussan Ley, but by the Leader of the National Party, by James Paterson, and senior members of the Coalition all called for hate speech to be outlawed.

JOURNALIST: Are you frustrated that with such a big majority in the House of Representatives, you couldn't pass these reforms through the Senate?

PRIME MINISTER: No, I am very clear that we do not have a majority in the Senate. That is the Parliament that Australians voted for. That is what we deal with. We try to negotiate through. We've been able to get through, overwhelmingly, our legislation, including the environmental laws at the end of last year. We engaged constructively. I think it is the Coalition, are difficult to get an answer out of at the moment. And what you have seen over the last week is people like Andrew Hastie making declarations openly. You haven't had a Shadow Cabinet process and yet you've had people declaring different positions. And in negotiating with them, it's very difficult to negotiate with people who will not put forward an alternative position. As I said, I've had discussions with Allegra Spender, I've had discussions with the Greens in good faith. I've had discussions with Sussan Ley. But it's clear what they're against. It's not clear what they're for. We will see.

JOURNALIST: Are you confident that you can stamp out antisemitism and target this problem in Australia while removing that racial vilification clause?

PRIME MINISTER: No. It was there for a reason and it's up to others to justify why that is unable to proceed. It's something that we supported, something that we put forward. People called for it to occur. We met last week as well with leaders in the Jewish community, sat down with the Executive Council, ECAJ, for two days last week, and we worked through the legislation. We put it forward in good faith. It's clear that those provisions do not have the support of a majority in the Senate.

JOURNALIST: With that encouragement from leaders in faith communities, will the Government have another crack at getting those laws into a form that can be supported by the Senate?

PRIME MINISTER: No. Well, they haven't been supported. We've got a big agenda this year. We have brought back the Parliament, as we were requested to do by multiple people, and every day it was called for, and indeed the Coalition were calling for this to all be finished before Christmas. That wasn't possible because it takes time to craft legislation and also to consult. We've done that in good faith. It has not received the support and we accept that.

JOURNALIST: What's your message to the Jewish community, given that you've had to have this shift in the legislation?

PRIME MINISTER: We stand with you and we have in good faith done what we said we would do, which is to seek to implement the recommendations of Jillian Segal's report. It hasn't received the support of some in the Senate, and it's up to them to explain to the community the difference between what they said and what they're actually, what they're prepared to do.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why are you only introducing legislation that will have support? Isn't that the point of Parliament, to debate different ideas?

PRIME MINISTER: The point of Parliament is the debate. The legislation is out there for everyone to see. What we are not going to do is to have further division. I have said very clearly from day one on this, I have sought unity. I'm seeking unity as well, not division, not a divisive debate. And we will proceed with measures that have support of the Parliament on Tuesday, and we'll get done what there's a majority of the Parliament willing to vote for.

JOURNALIST: Some legal and criminal experts have raised concerns that the debate around these laws have already heightened tensions in the wake of the terror attack. Do you accept any responsibility for that?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, they're right. They're right -

JOURNALIST: Do you accept responsibility for that?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, they're right. I have engaged constructively. Right through December and January, I have engaged constructively. I think people who have been observing the nature of this debate will know that I haven't slammed lecterns, I haven't engaged in some of the politicisation that's occurred. And I think it is unfortunate. It didn't occur, as I've said before, it did not occur after Port Arthur. It did not occur after the Lindt siege in Martin Place in Sydney. It did not occur after the Bali bombings. People came together. I am now calling once again for people to come together. We are going out of our way to support propositions that will promote unity. That is what is required. And that's why we need to get this done this week, not have ongoing debate, get it done, what is required in order to improve people's safety. But I again say that in the debate and the way that it's conducted, we need to lower the temperature of debate in this country across the board, not just on this issue. And people who've been following various court processes over recent days will understand the consequences which are there from some of the way that debate is being conducted. Now there's a whole broader debate about the role of social media and all of those things of how it is occurring. But it's very clear from the Director-General of ASIO, has made that point as well and has asked that temperature be lowered for some period of time. Thank you very much.