People accused of breaching the Albanese government’s new hate speech laws could argue their conduct was legal because they were quoting from a religious text, draft legislation shows.
Extracts of the draft bill obtained by Guardian Australia show it will be 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.
But within the draft bill is a proposed legal defence to the rule that states the legislation does not apply to an individual directly quoting a religious text.
“[The offence] not apply to conduct that consists only of directly quoting from, or otherwise referencing, a religious text for the purpose of religious teaching or discussion,” the draft states.
The government promised to tackle antisemitism, crack down on so-called “hate preachers” and hate speech following the alleged Bondi terror attack in December.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is expected to have more to say about the plans early on Tuesday morning. Albanese on Monday confirmed parliament would sit for two days on 19 and 20 January to rush through the new laws. Parliament had been due to return for the year on 3 February. The sitting will include condolence motions for the 15 people killed at Bondi last month.
The new laws will create serious offences for hate preachers, increase penalties for hate crimes, create a new racial vilification offence, introduce a new listing for prohibited hate groups, at a lower threshold than the terror group listing, as well as introduce provisions to establish the biggest gun buyback program since the Port Arthur massacre.
The legislation will also ensure offenders driven by extremism will have that motivation factored into their sentencing, strengthen existing bans on prohibited symbols, and create a new offence for inciting hatred in order to intimidate or harass. The home affairs minister will have new powers to cancel or refuse visas.
Crossbenchers are due to be briefed on the legislation on Tuesday. Some privately expressed concerns the major parties would use the secretive intelligence and security committee to limit genuine consultation on the plan. Labor and the Coalition shut out crossbench and independent members from serving on the committee.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said the laws would be “the toughest hate laws Australia has ever seen”.
“They will specifically target those who seek to spread hatred and disrupt social cohesion in our community. And it will send a clear message that this conduct will not be tolerated,” Rowland said.
The prime minister offered briefings to the opposition, the Greens, and Jewish groups on Monday evening. The draft will be released on Tuesday.
The prime minister said he will push for the bill to be passed before question time on Tuesday 20 January, although it is understood that neither the Coalition nor the Greens have yet given their support to pass it through the Senate.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, accused the government of playing politics by putting the hate speech crackdown and gun buyback into the same legislation.
“We are deeply sceptical of the prime minister’s decision to introduce a single bill that will attempt to cover multiple complex and unrelated policy areas, for example issues of speech are clearly separate from the ownership and management of firearms,” Ley said in a statement.
Albanese denied using the omnibus bill to wedge Nationals and Liberals opposed to tougher rules on gun ownership.
“The terrorists at Bondi beach had hatred in their minds, but guns in their hands. This law will deal with both,” Albanese said.
