The Australian chapter of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir has said it has no plan to disband before Labor’s hate speech legislation is brought to parliament, a day after the National Socialist Network (NSN) claimed it would do so.
Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia and the neo-Nazi NSN, which are not associated with each other, were named by the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, on Saturday as organisations that could be targeted by proposed legislation to ban alleged “hate groups” after the Asio general director, Mike Burgess, raised concerns about both.
The bill, which includes new hate speech and anti-vilification laws, could create a new listing of hate groups, which would have a lower threshold than the current terrorist organisation list. It would make it a crime to associate with, recruit, train, or provide support for a designated group, with an individual found guilty of “intentionally” directing the activities of a listed hate group facing up to 15 years in jail.
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Burgess, who under the proposed law could make a recommendation to the home affairs minister to designate an organisation as a hate group, has said the NSN and Hizb ut-Tahrir are two concerning groups that “know how to stay on the right side of the law as the laws currently are”, and do not currently meet the higher terrorist listing threshold.
Hizb ut-Tahrir was founded in Jordan in 1953. Its official aim is to re-establish the Islamic caliphate and impose sharia law worldwide.
It has been a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK, Germany and India. Announcing the UK ban in January 2024, the then home secretary, James Cleverly, said: “Hizb ut-Tahrir is an antisemitic organisation that actively promotes and encourages terrorism, including praising and celebrating the appalling 7 October attacks.”
Burke said no Australian government had been able to ban the group as it didn’t meet the “violence threshold”, and “that’s why the government is lowering the threshold”.
A lawyer acting on behalf of Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, Zaid Hamdan El Madi, said if the legislation passes his clients would “do what any organisation in a democracy is entitled to do” and “carefully review the final act, seek detailed legal advice, and, if necessary, challenge any listing through the courts”.
“Hizb ut-Tahrir is based on an Islamic political worldview. Unless the government is proposing to ban Islamic ideas, it cannot ban the ideas of Hizb ut-Tahrir,” he said.
“Hizb ut-Tahrir has never advocated hate or violence based on racial identity, its views are political in nature.”
On Saturday, Hamdan El Madi sent a letter on behalf of Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia to Burke, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, questioning whether such a law could be unconstitutional.
During a press conference on the same day, Rowland said: “We have crafted this legislation in a way that’s robust and we understand, of course, that these are laws that may be challenged … But the government stands by our drafting.”
The NSN announced on Tuesday it would disband by Sunday, a day before the legislation is introduced to parliament.
Jack Eltis, the NSW leader of the NSN, told Guardian Australia that the group has “no intention” to rebrand or circumvent the law if it passes, saying “national socialism will have to be pursued via parliamentarianism in future”.
On Wednesday, an Islamic prayer hall in Sydney associated with the controversial cleric Wisam Haddad, which had come under scrutiny since the Bondi massacre, announced it would permanently close. It has no connection with Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Burke told Guardian Australia on Wednesday that “the mere knowledge of the legislation” had already “seen the neo-Nazis disband”.
He also claimed it had affected the decision by the Sydney prayer hall to announce its closure.
Asked during a parliamentary committee examining the legislation on Tuesday whether the NSN disbanding would lead to it going underground, Burgess said it was a possibility.
“Yes, there is a risk they go underground, but our job is to find the people who are hiding themselves in society, and we’re good at that … Of course, individuals don’t cease to exist, they’re still there in society and obviously the problematic ones we will continue to watch if they continue to be problematic,” Burgess said.
