From criminalising hatred with ‘intent’ to gun buyback: four key parts of Albanese’s omnibus bill explained

Australian PM Anthony Albanese’s Labor government introduced a hate speech and gun law reform bill one week before it’s due to be voted on in parliament. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The federal government has introduced a new bill to tackle racial hatred and antisemitism, as well as further tighten gun control laws. The timing is tight, with just one week given between the proposed bill being made public and the vote in parliament. The explanatory memorandum is 319 pages long.

There are four key elements: criminalising and increasing penalties for hate speech; increasing the grounds for a minister to cancel a visa through the character test; listing certain organisations as hate groups; and establishing a new gun buyback scheme along with greater import controls on guns.