The Bondi attack on 14 December 2025 has prompted a government response, but any action must remain focused on antisemitism and the threat of the spread of radical Islamic ideology. Any attempt to broaden these laws to cover unrelated areas such as gender, sexuality, or other social issues would represent a serious overreach. In addition, the new laws being proposed may be rushed through next week with little opportunity for public scrutiny.
ACL is calling on Australians to ensure the government targets genuine threats, protects free speech, and provides more time for consultation.
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The Bondi attack on 14 December 2025 was driven by radical Islamic ideology and antisemitism. As such, proposed reforms in the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026, must remain tightly focused on protecting Jewish communities from this threat. Expanding the law to cover other areas risks weakening its impact and public trust.
As the exposure draft currently stands, free speech is under threat. Groups campaigning against immigration risk being shut down or religious leaders speaking out regarding trans ideology risk being imprisoned.
Gender identity and sexual orientation are fundamentally different from race. They are contested social and medical issues, not historically persecuted biological categories. Treating disagreement over these topics as hatred risks collapsing legitimate debate into prohibited speech and undermines the law’s clarity and effectiveness in combating genuine threats.
A clear, targeted approach protecting Jewish people from the rise of radical Islamic ideology ensures that hate speech laws address the most serious and well-documented threats, while protecting free expression and democratic debate. We need to be protecting vulnerable groups without silencing lawful discussion.
We must ask the government to ensure that any reforms remain focused on antisemitism and racial hatred and to ask for more time to consider these new laws.
