/qresearch/ -  Q Research

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World leaders react

In the early hours of Saturday local time, the US military launched a lightning raid on Venezuela’s capital, forcibly capturing Maduro and his wife. The couple were flown to New York, where, the US says, they will be arraigned on drugs and weapons trafficking charges.

It is unclear who is in control in Venezuela.

Donald Trump has said the US would indefinitely “run the country” after Maduro’s removal and would seize Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.

But Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, a loyalist, has appeared on television and radio in Caracas, contradicting the US president, who described her as Venezuela’s new president and said she was cooperating with the US. Rodríguez said Maduro was Venezuela’s “only” president and that the country would not be colonised.

The UN security council was due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday.

Just last month, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her “tireless work … to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.

Venezuela’s allies Russia, Cuba, and Iran have condemned the US military strike as a violation of sovereignty.

Among leading Latin American nations, Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, lauded Venezuela’s new “freedom”, while Mexico condemned the intervention and Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said it crossed “an unacceptable line”.

Maduro was indicted in US federal court in 2020 on narco-terrorism and other charges for running what prosecutors alleged was a scheme to send tons of cocaine to the US. He has always denied such allegations.

In July 2024, Maduro appeared to suffer a landslide defeat in the presidential election, amid widespread anger at his increasingly authoritarian rule.

The US, under former president Joe Biden, recognised opposition candidate Edmundo González as the victor. Detailed voting data released by the opposition and verified by independent experts showed González had won the vote, but Maduro clung to power after launching a ferocious crackdown against his political opponents.

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said his government would “shed no tears” over the end of Maduro’s regime.

“The UK has long supported a transition of power in Venezuela,” Starmer said.

“We regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president, and we shed no tears about the end of his regime.”

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, also accused Maduro of seizing power and trampling on fundamental freedoms.

Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Ananda, said: “We have refused to recognise any legitimacy of the Maduro regime and opposed its repression of the Venezuelan people, including the persecution of dissenters and particularly political leaders opposed to the regime.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/04/albanese-calls-for-peaceful-democratic-transition-of-power-in-venezuela-after-us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro

https://x.com/AlboMP/status/2007566917935276386

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqtRFh_Z7iA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7oBRMmetQI

https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/destinations/americas/venezuela

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‘This is a triumph’: Australian Venezuelans celebrate downfall of dictator

Kayla Olaya - January 4, 2026

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Venezuelans in Sydney and Melbourne are celebrating the capture of their country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, by US President Donald Trump. Many of them hope it marks a transition away from dictatorship and poverty, back towards the prosperity of the 1970s when Venezuela became the richest country in South America on the back of its abundant petroleum reserves.

While the imminent indictment of Maduro in New York has raised questions about the legality of Trump’s orders, Jackeline Giovannucci, who fled Venezuela for Sydney in 2014, doesn’t see it as an invasion of her country but as a path towards democracy.

“Venezuelans, we have lived with so many deceptions,” she said. “It’s sometimes hard to believe that the events [of Saturday night] finally occurred. There is an enormous human rights violation in Venezuela. We have asked for international help for many years, so this is a triumph.”

In her hometown, Barinas, a city in the country’s central west known for its rivers and fertile farmland, Giovannucci’s friends forgo meals to feed their children. When she left, she thought she would never see Venezuela change in her lifetime and that her two Australian-born daughters would never meet her sister.

For the first time, the prospect of going back feels real.

“We needed a larger force than Maduro to restore our democracy, and with our petroleum, we understand that’s what people say this attack is about … however, [former president Hugo] Chavez and Maduro sold it to China, Russia and Iran, and how has that money benefited Venezuelans if we don’t have food, medicine, no school for our children?” she said.

In a Venezuelan restaurant in Melbourne’s east, Valentina Oliveros has ordered hundreds of celebratory arepas rellenas: corn pancakes filled with slow-cooked meat, cheese and vegetables. She says the celebrations are not about the bombardment of her country.

“To say this is about the US intervention is not true. We are celebrating that Maduro is gone,” she said. “It’s like we are celebrating, but at the same time, no … there’s hope, but we understand that this isn’t our last chapter because we don’t know what will happen next.”

Oliveros, who arrived in Clyde, south-east of Melbourne, in 2016 from Puerto Ordaz in the country’s southwest, has many family members in Caracas. Her uncle was sleeping in an apartment next to an airport that was bombed by the US when they succeeded in their operation to capture Maduro on Saturday.

Oliveros says Trump’s promises of rebuilding the country offer more hope than previously existed.

“People saying Trump is not doing this for Venezuelans, we know he is doing this for petroleum, it’s an opportunity for him, but for me, I see that opportunity as liberation, for me to return,” she said.

Snap protests have been organised in four Australian capital cities by the Palestinian Action Group on Sunday night, with the pamphlet titled “Hands off Venezuela. Stop the bombings.”

One of the protests at Sydney’s Town Hall was scheduled to start at 6pm, the same time and location where another unauthorised gathering, a Venezuelan celebration, was set to take place. NSW Police said unauthorised protesters would be issued move-on orders.

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Caracas-born Australian journalist Claudianna Blanco said that while news about Maduro’s capture had brought hope to many Venezuelans in Australia, the protest’s message might not be well-received by the Venezuelan community.

“From the community perspective, the fact that there are groups saying ‘hands off Venezuela’ – [the community] feel that they’re not being heard or seen, that their perspectives are not being valued to the same level as the perspective of those who oppose US intervention,” Blanco said.

“The rejection of the idea of a US intervention, or the US breaking the international agreement-based order, [Venezuelans] see that as more geopolitical. They feel that those groups may be considering those views, the geopolitics of it is more important than the suffering and the voices of the Venezuelans that haven’t been heard for so long and in the context of 20-plus years of erosion of democracy to then dictatorship.”

“In that context, when your voice is consistently silenced and ignored by those in power, from a citizen’s perspective, it is kind of repeating that trauma of your desires for democracy are not important, your desires for change don’t matter.”

Twenty metres from Town Hall steps is the “Hands off Venezuela” protest, which has about 150 people rallying and cheering in front of seven alternating speakers. Many people are holding Venezuelan and communist flags, as well as placards denouncing the US.

However, on the less populated side is Aitana Ospina, in a group of about 30 mostly Venezuelans celebrating the capture of Maduro. She says the larger group’s cause is guided by US hatred.

“We don’t want their hatred of Trump to blind the truth of the suffering of what was going on in Venezuela,” Ospina said.

“I came in 2016 because I was dying, standing in line with my mum from 2am each morning, praying we could buy food at the supermarket.”

“Two truths can coexist. They’re worried Trump is going to take our oil. We don’t even have oil ourselves — we just want a little bit of hope. Trump can give us that.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/this-is-a-triumph-australian-venezuelans-celebrate-downfall-of-dictator-20260104-p5nri2.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otxIUywHK2g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCJ5oD62AO0

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Parliament to be recalled soon to debate hate speech laws

Brittany Busch - January 5, 2026

Parliament is set to be recalled before Australia Day to debate a suite of contentious new hate speech and gun laws announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese four days after the Bondi shooting as the Coalition says every day it is delayed is a day too late.

But even as the Home Affairs department rushes to write up legislation around hate groups and religious discrimination that could withstand a High Court challenge, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says she wants to see the new laws well in advance before the Coalition could back them.

“Every day that the parliament has not come back has been a day that it should have come back,” Ley said in a press conference on Monday in Canberra.

“So in fact, whenever it comes back, it won’t be coming back early. It will be coming back late.”

The prime minister announced reforms in the days following the Bondi massacre last month, in which IS-inspired gunmen targeted a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people in the worst alleged terror attack in Australia’s history.

Ley said she had discussed parliament’s return with Albanese but that she had not yet been given a firm date.

While promising to work constructively with the government to pass new laws, Ley said she would expect to see proposals “well in advance of a recall to parliament” to get them right.

“We do have to make sure it is fit for purpose,” Ley said. “We have to acknowledge that the root of this [antisemitic] hatred is radical Islam, and it needs to be addressed, and the government needs to take strong action.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has said he would devise a way to outlaw extremist groups such as Hizb-ut Tahrir and the National Socialist Network, which do not meet the existing legal threshold to be declared terrorist organisations.

Public servants have worked through Christmas and the new year to get legislation ready, including to introduce an “aggravated hate-speech offence” for preachers and leaders who promote violence, and a federal offence for serious vilification based on race or advocating racial supremacy. Penalties for promoting violence will also be increased; hate will be made an aggravating factor when sentencing people for online threats; and a regime to list organisations whose leaders promote violence or racial hatred will be created. The home affairs minister’s powers to deny and rescind visas will also be expanded.

The government is hastening the development of a national firearms register, and it has committed to a national buyback scheme for gun owners to surrender firearms in line with new rules being passed by state and territory governments to put a cap on the number of guns a person can own.

Legislation was still being drafted on Monday, according to one government source, and it was not yet clear whether it would all be put to parliament at once.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the national security committee had met again on Monday, and that it was focused on the most urgent next steps following the Bondi tragedy.

“We are in the process of strengthening laws against hate speech. We’re in the process of working with the states and territories to toughen up our gun laws. We’re in the process of accelerating some of the implementation of the recommendations of the Segal review,” Chalmers told reporters, referencing the work of antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal.

“We will recall the parliament when we can legislate some of those very substantive steps.”

Chalmers thanked officials “who have been working around the clock since the horrific events of December to work with ministers to update and strengthen the relevant legislation”.

Independent MP Monique Ryan cautioned against rushing through knee-jerk legislation in which mistakes could be made.

“I don’t want parliament to be recalled until we’ve got decent legislation,” she said.

“This is important. I do think that we need to act on it quickly. So there’s a balance, between coming together too quickly with stuff that hasn’t been thought through and subjected to appropriate legal oversight, and the fact that we do need to take action.”

Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam on Monday said the Coalition had not had any input into the government’s proposed reforms.

“I’ve not received any briefing or any early insights into what the government is drafting up by way of legislation,” Duniam told Sky News. “I look forward to receiving a briefing sometime soon, but the sooner we can deal with these things, the better.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/parliament-to-be-recalled-soon-to-rush-through-hate-speech-laws-20260105-p5nrme.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjWr3aFJ1QU

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PM considering calling a Bondi killings royal commission

Paul Sakkal - January 6, 2026

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has opened the door to a federal royal commission into the Bondi shootings, pledging to do “everything that is possible” for national unity, as Labor MPs expect the government to back down on its previous objections to a national inquiry.

Three sources familiar with thinking at the top of the government, including some who have spoken directly with Albanese, said no decision had been made but the prime minister had indicated privately he was shifting on the issue and understood the need to back down on his firm stance that a rapid review helmed by former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson would be the better option.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail what they had learnt privately, said ministerial advisers were working on what a potential new inquiry would probe.

While they stressed nothing had been settled, options being canvassed include expanding the Richardson inquiry into intelligence agencies, collaborating more strongly with the NSW royal commission, or a standing up a new federal royal commission, which is the highest form of official inquiry. The sources believe the latter is most likely.

A group of Labor MPs has been pushing behind the scenes for a royal commission for weeks. “This is heading in one direction,” one government source said.

Albanese has withstood growing demands for three weeks for a federal inquiry coming from the opposition, lawyers, business figures and prominent sports stars, arguing that it would platform hate speech, risk delaying action and duplicate the state-based royal commission promised by NSW Premier Chris Minns.

But the prime minister appeared to lay the groundwork for a more ambitious inquiry when he was asked about the issue on Tuesday at a press conference in Cloncurry, Queensland, to announce flood relief.

While Albanese insisted the Richardson rapid review into intelligence failures was his main priority, he added “we’re continuing to examine everything else that is required”.

“I continue to be engaged with leaders in the Jewish community. I’m talking and meeting on a daily basis with people to make sure that we do everything that is possible to … as I have said, what we need to do is to promote unity at this time, and that is my focus.”

Albanese said he was “talking to NSW” about how the state-based inquiry would run.

“We are engaged with the community as well as with the NSW government to make sure that we get done everything that is required to make sure we build social cohesion back in this country.”

He did not rule out launching a royal commission, or repeat his previous objections that it would take too long and hurt national unity.

Reports that the prime minister is shifting his thinking follow a change in language from Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Health Minister Mark Butler, who both emphasised this week that they respect the many calls for a royal commission.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley welcomed the apparent change in position but said that “words are no longer enough”.

“The prime minister has delayed, deflected and talked past those most affected for too long. If he proceeds now, he must do so on the terms of victims and families, not on his own political timetable,” she said in a statement.

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Jenny Roytur, whose uncle Boris Tetleroyd was killed in the attack and whose cousin Yaakov was shot, said a royal commission was “the only way to go forward” but that she remained disappointed in the federal government.

“It’s been amazing, the support from the wider community. However, I have never been more disappointed in a government. They have sat on their hands,” she said. “We as family members feel completely let down and unsupported.”

Sheina Gutnick, whose father, Reuven Morrison, was killed throwing bricks at one of the shooters, said she was thrilled at the possibility a royal commission, and it was giving her community hope their concerns would be addressed.

“It’s unfortunate that at a time when we just wanted to grieve with our families that we had to be a loud voice within the community, and at the same time, we are so thankful for the other voices that stood up,” Gutnick said.

She called for Jewish Australians to be involved in the establishment of a potential commission.

The Coalition has released its own draft terms for a royal commission, saying it should probe 25 points that include the immigration system, cultural institutions, universities and the Australian Human Rights Commission. Albanese has previously rejected the Coalition’s terms of reference as unreasonable.

The Jewish Council of Australia, an organisation of Jewish Australians who support the Palestinian cause, had earlier on Tuesday supported calls for an investigation into the Bondi attack but warned against it being politicised.

Its executive officer, Sarah Schwartz, said any royal commission must “prioritise safety for all over culture wars”.

“Open hearings about protest movements and migrant policy, as some conservatives have called for, will make the Jewish community less safe, as well as other communities who face racism daily,” she said.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies were contacted for comment.

Former Labor frontbencher Mike Kelly, who had earlier signed his name to an open letter from Labor identities calling for a royal commission, said on Tuesday that Albanese should seize the opportunity as parliament returns in coming weeks.

“The government can then come out and say, look, we’ve heard what the community has to say. We’ve seen this new information, and we have decided now to act,” he said.

“And we will give them all the credit in the world for recognising that. We don’t want to attack anybody here. We just want our country to be safe.”

Kelly also warned that federal agencies and their employees would be reluctant to “fully open the kimono” to the NSW royal commission because it did not offer the same legal protections as a federal inquiry would.

“I know there are Commonwealth officers who will not want to speak fully and openly unless they have the legal protections of a Commonwealth royal commission,” he said.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/witnesses-want-the-protection-of-a-royal-commission-former-labor-minister-20260106-p5nrza.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do0YY8cK6ig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp3kpFq_QnI

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Sydney protest ban extended days after three arrested at unauthorised rally

Daniel Lo Surdo - January 6, 2026

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon has extended the 14-day protest ban on Sydney’s streets by another fortnight, days after 250 people descended on Town Hall in an unauthorised rally over the US raid on Venezuela, at which three people were arrested.

The tough protest powers were included in an omnibus bill introduced by the NSW government after the Bondi shooting, which killed 15 people and injured 40 others.

Lanyon extended the declaration on Tuesday after finding public assemblies in the next fortnight presented the potential to “cause fear and public safety issues”.

“It’s about saying the time is not now for any retribution,” Lanyon said. “It’s about saying we want the community to feel confident, to move around safely.”

Lanyon imposed the first public assembly restriction declaration on December 24, hours after the legislation was given assent following its passage through NSW parliament.

The declaration prevented demonstrations on streets across the Sydney metropolitan region for two weeks and was to end on Tuesday.

Under the new anti-protest laws, stationary gatherings are allowed, but police may issue move-on directions for people causing obstructions or behaving in an intimidatory or harassing manner, or to people who might cause or be likely to cause fear in another person.

The latest declaration will last until January 20. Lanyon is free to continue the declaration for up to three months, meaning protests could be restricted until March.

A third consecutive declaration would extend the ban through to February, which would prohibit the annual Invasion Day march staged through the Sydney CBD on January 26.

Lanyon refused to be drawn on the “premature” prospect of another declaration, signalling instead that he would monitor the “current environment” before making another decision.

“We’ll certainly look at the behaviour over the next 14 days,” he said.

On Sunday, Town Hall was inundated with protesters celebrating the US capture of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, mirroring rallies staged across the country after the Trump administration’s extraordinary strikes in Caracas.

Among the three arrested was a 53-year-old woman who wore “a shirt displaying offensive messaging”, which government sources said was the slogan “globalise the intifada”, which Premier Chris Minns wants to outlaw.

Lanyon said the woman had been arrested because her item of clothing was deemed “offensive”, adding that investigations into the rally were ongoing.

Two men, aged 26 and 34, were arrested for breaching the peace. All three arrested were released without charge.

Another 40 counter-protesters, believed to be aligned with the Palestine Action Group, were also at the rally on Sunday night.

Police Minister Yasmin Catley, whom Lanyon consulted before extending the declaration, said she “unequivocally supports” the decision.

“This extension reflects the commissioner’s ongoing focus on community safety and on reducing the risk of heightened tension following the Bondi terror attack,” she said.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry will this month examine the prospect of banning hateful slogans, such as “globalise the intifada”, ahead of new legislation set to be introduced next month.

A coalition of activists, including the Palestine Activist Group and Jews Against the Occupation, has signalled a constitutional challenge against the legislation restricting public assemblies.

Minns has said he is “alive” to the threat of a constitutional challenge, but said he was “confident” of the laws passed last month.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-protest-ban-extended-days-after-three-arrested-at-unauthorised-rally-20260106-p5ns39.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2-YLPuyRt8

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Experts set out case for Bondi royal commission as U-turn looms

Nicola Smith - Jan 7, 2026

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Albanese government ministers could be compelled to provide evidence under oath and submit communications records to investigators under the powers of a federal royal commission into the Bondi attack that is now expected to be called within days.

Senior politicians and Jewish leaders have indicated they anticipate a government proposal for a national inquiry to be agreed to in a matter of days, and potentially lodged within a wider package of measures that include tougher legislation on hate speech and an early recall of parliament.

The expected government U-turn follows an outpouring of political, business and community demands for a royal commission into the fatal shooting, antisemitism and extremism, and as a raft of top legal minds say the government has no excuse not to trigger the country’s highest form of investigation into its worst-ever terrorist attack.

“With respect, the arguments put against the federal royal commission are unconvincing,” said Neville Owen, the former senior WA judge who led the 2001 royal commission to investigate the collapse of HIH Insurance and warned that a state-level inquiry could hit jurisdictional and constitutional roadblocks.

Many of the policy and freedom-of-speech issues linked to the Bondi attack fell within the federal domain, including government decisions taken since a controversial protest – when antisemitic chants were heard – at Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023, he said.

The remit of the probe should be “extremely wide”, encompassing criminality and systemic issues, said Owen, dismissing the government’s earlier argument that a federal royal commission, on top of initiatives already announced, would be time-consuming and excessive.

The government announced a suite of measures in the days after the attack, including a review of law enforcement and intelligence agencies led by former spy chief Dennis Richardson, stronger gun laws and an antisemitism education taskforce. New South Wales also launched its own state-level royal commission.

“The danger is that they’ll be like silos. What you need is a body that can look at all of the issues,” Owen told The Australian Financial Review.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week, more than 230 former judges and senior members of the Australian Bar cautioned that the Richardson review could not offer the same degree of independence, transparency or public authority as a royal commission.

By contrast, a federal inquiry would be institutionally independent of government, hold coercive powers to compel witnesses and documents, receive evidence subject to necessary security protections and provide a forum for affected communities and experts to be heard.

“A federal royal commission, properly constituted and with appropriate terms of reference, would be a constructive exercise in national self-examination, strengthening Australia’s legal and democratic resilience,” they wrote.

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Owen, and barrister Nick Bender, a signatory of the letter, said such an inquiry could force ministers to submit email or WhatsApp communications to investigators.

“If somebody can be compelled to give evidence at a royal commission, then subject to certain predictions for privilege and the like, they must produce the documents,” said Bender, who added that national security protections would also apply.

Scott Prasser, who authored the Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia report, said the “inquisitorial mechanism” required witnesses to answer questions under oath, even if self-incriminating. The commission does not make judgments and witness statements cannot be used in a court of law, but could prompt legal authorities to pursue a case.

“Royal commissions have called ministers in the past, and prime ministers too,” Prasser said.

Never had there been such “sustained, widespread” demand for a federal inquiry, Prasser added.

A group of high-profile business leaders, including David Baxby, co-founder and partner of Coogee Capital, this week launched a public campaign with two-page newspaper advertisements designed to maintain pressure on the government.

Albanese on Tuesday showed the first hint of a shift towards calling a commission, committing his government to do “everything required” to protect social cohesion.

A senior Labor source, who spoke freely on condition of anonymity, indicated the launch of an inquiry could be wrapped into a wider announcement about government actions, including the completion of new hate speech laws, which are believed to be in the final drafting stages ahead of their introduction in parliament.

Coalition home affairs spokesman Jonathon Duniam said the opposition was still awaiting details on the new laws.

“The prime minister asked for unity and in the wake of this national tragedy we want to work with the government to get this right,” Duniam said.

“As such, the opposition, along with the Jewish community, legal experts and other stakeholders, will need to see draft legislation as soon as possible.

“This can’t be left until the last minute with laws being tabled in a take-it-or-leave-it situation.”

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/experts-set-out-case-for-bondi-royal-commission-as-u-turn-looms-20260107-p5nsbu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dty0iv-MxiU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IntBMQ90AI0

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Greens soften on royal commission, co-founder Bob Brown says PM set to cave

THOMAS HENRY - 7 January 2026

Former Greens leader Bob Brown believes Anthony Albanese will cave in to pressure and call a federal inquiry into anti-Semitism “in the coming days”, describing the investigation into anti-Jewish hatred as “very, very important”.

The minor party he helped found remains the only parliamentary force yet to back a federal probe, though is understood to be open to a royal commission into the Bondi massacre pending an official briefing from the government.

After state and federal Greens members went to ground in the wake of the Bondi massacre, under intense scrutiny over their role in fuelling anti-Semitic sentiment, the senior party figure was pressed on whether the Prime Minister had made “an error in judgment” in not backing widespread calls for a commonwealth inquiry.

Dr Brown refused to rule out his support for the “very, very important” investigation into anti-Semitism, noting a federal royal commission was “popular” and that Mr Albanese still “had a judgment to make”.

“I think it’s headed that way to a royal commission being called,” he told ABC.

“It’ll take a bit longer to come up with the results, but for the reasons that many people are putting forward, and it seems to be the popular idea of how to go about that very, very important investigation.”

The veteran conservationist’s sympathetic stance towards a national inquiry into anti-Semitism in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, pre-empted a public position from his party who are yet to back community calls for a federal royal commission.

A Greens spokesman said the party had “sought an official briefing from the government” on their proposed response to the Bondi massacre.

“We will continue to work constructively with the government in its efforts to uncover what went wrong and prevent it from happening again,” he said.

The minor party’s latest public statement in relation to the anti-Semitic massacre saw Greens leader Larissa Waters, deputy Mehreen Faruqi, and Senator David Shoebridge attack new hate speech and protest reforms rushed through NSW parliament.

The trio decried the “attack on protest” as “part of a broader false political narrative linking the actions of the appalling two terrorist shooters to a global movement to end violence, oppose a genocide and demand justice”.

There was no mention of a royal commission.

Ms Faruqi, who has regularly attended pro-Palestine rallies over the past two years was berated by mourners when she arrived at a vigil the morning after the Bondi massacre.

The anti-Israel Senator was previously censured in the upper house for holding up an anti-Israel poster while Governor-General Sam Mostyn addressed parliament and has repeatedly refused to call for Hamas to be dismantled claiming it was “up to the people in Palestine”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/greens-cofounder-bob-brown-says-pm-set-to-cave-on-royal-commission/news-story/c793515ca8c04caf198b7d9a8d347c40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4aful-K3Q

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Bondi hero Ahmed al Ahmed to be feted at Jewish gala in New York

Ben Cubby - January 7, 2026

Bondi hero Ahmed al Ahmed has travelled to the US for medical treatment, with an escort team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and will attend a Jewish event in New York on Wednesday night.

The Sydney tobacco shop owner, who was shot twice after disarming a gunman during the December 14 Bondi Beach massacre, will be joined by Bondi Rabbi Yehoram Ulman at the reception dinner in New York which invites guests to “hear firsthand what courage and moral clarity look like in real time”.

Ahmed received a standing ovation at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday when he was introduced on the field before the Ashes Test alongside first responders and 14-year-old Chaya Dadon, who shielded two young children with her body during the attack.

Ahmed, his arm still in a sling after two weeks of treatment at St George Hospital, documented his trip to the US on Instagram.

“On my way to start my treatment journey in the United States,” he wrote. “I kindly ask everyone to keep me in their prayers. Thank you for your love and support.”

“It is a long journey, but a necessary one. We ask God for success and guidance. Your prayers,” he wrote on a separate post.

“A special thanks to the FBI for their warm welcome, outstanding protection and genuine care. Your professionalism and support are truly appreciated,” he wrote below an image of himself with agents at Los Angeles airport.

He is due to attend the annual Colel Chabad awards gala dinner on Wednesday – a charity event for which individual tickets start at $US1000 ($1485).

Ahmed, who is Muslim, wore a yarmulke – a Jewish skullcap worn as a sign of reverence for God – in a photo of him talking to Jewish leaders before the event.

“We are honoured to welcome Rabbi Yehoram Ulman of Chabad of Bondi, together with Ahmed (Ahamad) al Ahmed, who intervened unarmed during the Chanukah Menorah lighting attack in Sydney, risking his own life to stop the attacker,” the organisers said.

“Both will be joining us in person. This is a rare opportunity to hear firsthand what courage and moral clarity look like in real time.

“Stand together, Jews and friends of the Jewish people, against hatred and terror, affirming that decent people do not stay silent.

“Draw strength from Rabbi Ulman, a major rabbinic leader who has guided his community through this tragedy and its aftermath with resilience, faith, and resolve.”

There are six patients still in hospital following the Islamic State-inspired attack by two gunmen on a Jewish Hanukkah event next to the beach which killed 15 people and wounded 39.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/bondi-hero-ahmed-al-ahmed-to-be-feted-at-jewish-gala-in-new-york-20260107-p5ns8u.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_ZRfiF3RzE

https://www.instagram.com/ahmedalahmedsydney/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ahmed.al.ahmedsydneyhero

>>23978158

>>24080609

‘I’ve taken the time to reflect’: Anthony Albanese bows to intense pressure, announces antisemitism royal commission

Rob Harris and Matthew Knott - January 8, 2026

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An unprecedented royal commission will probe the explosion of antisemitism and a deterioration in social cohesion following the worst terror attack in the nation’s history after the federal government caved to three weeks of fierce calls from the victims’ families, public figures, the opposition and some within Labor to hold a federal inquiry.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stared down last-minute resistance from prominent Jewish Australians, including former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, by appointing former High Court justice Virginia Bell to lead the national inquiry, who has been asked to complete her inquiry and report by the end of the year.

He said the inquiry would address four key areas: investigating the nature and prevalence of antisemitism; making recommendations to assist law enforcement or to control immigration and security agencies to tackle antisemitism; examining the circumstances surrounding the Bondi terrorist attack on December 14; and examining ways to strengthen social cohesion and counter the spread of ideological and religiously motivated extremism in Australia.

“I’ve taken the time to reflect, to meet with leaders in the Jewish community, and most importantly, I’ve met with many of the families of victims and survivors of that horrific attack,” Albanese said after constantly rejecting calls for weeks to hold a national inquiry. “They’ve had their lives and worlds shattered … I’ve shed tears with them. I want to thank people for those honest and open-hearted conversations.”

He said it became clear to him that a federal royal commission was needed into the broader issue rather that a NSW-based inquiry because antisemitism was not confined between “the Tweed River and the Murray”. Following Albanese’s announcement, the NSW government confirmed its planned inquiry would no longer proceed.

Albanese said the inquiry would not be “a drawn-out process”, and the government has asked Bell to deliver her final report before December 14. The commissioner has also been directed not to prejudice any future criminal proceedings against 24-year-old gunman Naveed Akram, who faces 59 charges, including 15 counts of murder.

Former senior public servant Dennis Richardson’s existing work examining the roles of the security and intelligence agencies will be incorporated into the commission. Richardson will support Bell’s inquiry and deliver an interim report by April.

The Islamic State-inspired attack on a Jewish festival event at Bondi on December 14 left 15 people dead and more than 40 injured.

Hitting out at critics within his own left-wing political base, who believe the role of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023 are to blame for the uptick in antisemitic acts and violence, Albanese said he was determined that he wanted to build social cohesion, and not tear it apart.

“I don’t want a royal commission into whether we provide a solution on Gaza or on the Middle East,” he said.

“That’s not the role of a royal commission … Australians want two things. When it comes to the Middle East, they want it to stop – they want peace for Israelis and Palestinians. But the other thing that they want is for conflict to not be brought here.”

The commission will also examine the adequacy of law enforcement, border, immigration and security agency responses to antisemitism and make recommendations to strengthen social cohesion and counter ideological and religious radicalisation.

Albanese said Bell’s experience would allow the commission to meaningfully examine the impact of antisemitism on the daily lives of Jewish Australians without providing a platform for hatred.

“This royal commission is the right format, the right duration and the right terms of reference to deliver the right outcome for our national unity and our national security,” Albanese said.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley criticised Albanese for taking three weeks to agree to hold a federal investigation, saying: “This will forever be the Commonwealth royal commission Anthony Albanese was forced to have. Few issues in Australian history have united such a broad and credible coalition against a sitting Prime Minister.”

Ley said the decision to appoint a single commissioner showed Albanese still failed “to grasp the gravity of the issues at stake”.

The Coalition had called for three royal commissioners to be appointed: a former judge, a person with lived experience of antisemitism and a national security expert.

(continued)

>>24090610

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Frydenberg, now chairman of Goldman Sachs Australia, said following the announcement that the commission must be fiercely independent, rigorous, trusted and transparent.

“The bar is high. The stakes are higher,” he said in a post on X. “It is a tragic reality that antisemitism has become normalised in Australia. It is a cancer that must be rooted out.”

The Zionist Federation of Australia welcomed the establishment of the royal commission as a “necessary and important step” and praised the scope of its terms of reference.

“The work now is to ensure the commission is able to examine all relevant issues fully and rigorously, so it can follow the evidence wherever it leads and deliver practical reforms that strengthen the safety and wellbeing of Jewish Australians and the broader community,” the federation’s president, Jeremy Liebler, said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry President Daniel Aghion said the government had made the right decision by heeding the calls made by the Jewish community and the families affected by the shootings.

“We are especially grateful to the eminent artists, lawyers, business leaders, sporting legends, political figures, women’s organisations and other groups who added their powerful voices to this call.”

Aghion said the executive council would cooperate fully Bell with as commissioner and “make every effort to ensure that the full force of the community’s views and experiences of antisemitism in various sectors of society are brought to the forefront of the inquiry”.

Jewish leaders had earlier warned Albanese against appointing Bell amid concerns over her previous High Court ruling in favour of public protest as an act of political expression, while others said she could be viewed as an overly political choice after Labor appointed her in 2022 to probe Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries.

Asked directly about the criticisms of Bell, Albanese said there had been a range of views but there was “no one of the stature of Virginia Bell”, adding her background in the criminal law would be critical, and she was “widely respected right across the board”.

A Jewish community leader said that, while there had been some disquiet about Bell’s perceived close ties to Labor, criticism of the government’s response to the Bondi massacre would simmer down. “Now the decision has been made, everyone will do their best to support it,” the community leader said.

Albanese had been subjected to three weeks of pressure both publicly and, increasingly, internally after he suggested a royal commission was not best placed to deal with national security issues and risked giving a platform to antisemitic hate speech.

After several interventions, he this week changed his message, opening the door to calls for a royal commission which had come from the families of Bondi victims, national and state Jewish community groups, more than 200 senior members of the Australian Bar, more than 100 captains of industry, the Business Council of Australia, the Law Council of Australia, Catholic bishops, prominent sports stars and three Labor backbenchers.

Albanese said Israeli President Isaac Herzog was still formally invited to visit the country in coming weeks despite opposition from pro-Palestinian advocates in Labor’s rank and file.

The four key terms of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion

1. Investigate the prevalence of antisemitism in Australia, including how it is driven by religious and ideologically motivated extremism and radicalisation

2. Help law enforcement and security agencies tackle antisemitism, including through training organisations on how to respond to antisemitic conduct

3. Examine the circumstances surrounding the Bondi terrorist attack

4. Make any other recommendations that could strengthen social cohesion and counter the spread of extremism

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/anthony-albanese-bows-to-intense-pressure-will-call-royal-commission-into-bondi-killings-20260106-p5ns2n.html

https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-01/draft-letters-patent_royal-commission-on-antisemitism-and-social-cohesion.pdf

https://x.com/JoshFrydenberg/status/2009160511984910831

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQfdbMOQeN8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z21nshVO7kY

>>24090610

Former high court judge confirmed as commissioner despite Frydenberg objections

Rob Harris and Matthew Knott - January 8, 2026

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Anthony Albanese has stared down resistance from prominent Jewish Australians, including former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, and appointed former High Court justice Virginia Bell to lead a royal commission into the Bondi terror attack and the broader issue of antisemitism.

Albanese’s announcement of Bell’s appointment on Thursday afternoon, came despite some in the Jewish community raising concerns about Bell’s role in writing modern protest laws in Australia.

The inquiry is expected to be a broad investigation into antisemitism in Australia and the circumstances leading up to the worst terror attack in the nation’s history, sources familiar with Albanese’s thinking said.

A growing number of Jewish leaders, including Frydenberg, raised concerns about the mooted appointment of Bell as Albanese’s choice to lead a royal commission, warning that broad community consensus over the commissioner “should be a minimum requirement” for the inquiry to succeed.

They hoped former Federal Court chief justice James Allsop would be chosen.

Sources within Sydney’s Jewish community pointed to the fact Bell was part of a High Court ruling, Brown v Tasmania, which found Tasmanian laws restricting protest were invalid because they violated the implied freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution.

That ruling was directly cited as part of the NSW Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Minns government’s ban on pro-Palestine march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge last year.

Bell was one of three High Court justices, along with former chief justice Susan Kiefel and Patrick Keane, who found that the implied freedom of political communication “protects the free expression of political opinion, including peaceful protest, which is indispensable to the exercise of political sovereignty by the people of the Commonwealth”.

Advocates calling for the highest form of public inquiry want it to examine the drivers and enablers of antisemitism in Australia; assess institutional failures across education, public administration and civil society; evaluate the effectiveness of law enforcement and judicial responses to antisemitic hate speech and incitement; and identify sources of funding and influence that sustain extremist ideologies.

Jewish groups were highly critical of decisions to let several pro-Palestine protests go ahead.

“One might say that this conflicts her. Particularly if she is to inquire into the effects of her own judgments – which set the law for protest in Australia,” one prominent member of the Jewish community told this masthead, speaking on the condition of anonymity, while stressing Bell was a sound and respected judge.

“[But] would she be able to be seen to objectively inquire into the NSW protests and university protests, given her role in making this law?”

He pointed to the resignation of Brian Martin from the Don Dale royal commission within a week of his appointment, after he conceded he “would not have the full confidence of sections” of the Aboriginal community.

Indigenous leaders had raised concerns that Martin would be unable to show independence because he’d previously “sat at the apex” of the system that had been imprisoning Aboriginal youths as a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.

Allsop has been a forceful advocate of a sweeping inquiry into antisemitism and the circumstances leading up to the Bondi massacre.

To not undertake a robust inquiry “imperils the future of the nation”, Allsop wrote in a January 2 opinion article for The Australian Financial Review.

“This country, if it is to continue to be what we thought it was, must ask itself and answer, truthfully, some very hard questions about itself (our country) and ourselves, and about this lightly sleeping evil that has stirred and begun to arise,” he wrote.

(continued)

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Former NSW Supreme Court chief justice James Spigelman said of Bell: “She was a very good judge.”

He said earlier he hoped that Albanese would reverse his previous position to not hold a royal commission, but declined to comment further.

In a 2008 speech paying tribute to Bell when she departed the NSW Supreme Court ahead of her High Court appointment, Spigelman said: “If there was one word I would use to describe your approach, it is ‘balanced’. Furthermore, your judgments reflect an exquisite ability to cut incisively to the real point in issue. And you do it every time.”

University of Sydney international law professor Ben Saul accused Frydenberg of questioning “the capabilities of one of Australia’s most distinguished, highly regarded, fair and impartial legal figures”.

“It is time to stop politicising any Bondi inquiry,” Saul said in a post on X.

A well-connected Jewish community source, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said: “Virginia Bell has impeccable credentials, but people are saying that we don’t know what’s in her heart.”

Prominent barrister Greg Barns, a spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said a royal commissioner had to be seen as independent.

“If any interest group is allowed to veto or approve selection then this compromises the independence,” he said.

“Further it sets a dangerous precedent. Will other groups be allowed to have a right to approve?”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said earlier: “A consensus on who is chosen to be the royal commissioner should be a minimum requirement. This royal commission, which will examine what led to the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history and the crisis of antisemitism, must have the confidence of the Jewish community.”

Former Labor MP Michael Danby, who is Jewish, said he had concerns about Bell being chosen to lead the royal commission.

“I’m not sure she is the best person,” he said. “This involves ideology, foreign affairs, national security. I wouldn’t like to think that the PM is pushing her because she’s a safe bet as far as the Labor Party is concerned. I’m not saying she is biased, but it is important that she is perceived to be an appropriate figure for this inquiry.”

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/virginia-bell-s-role-in-protest-laws-under-scrutiny-as-albanese-weighs-royal-commission-20260108-p5nskq.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRD3pbFgnDo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ZPNRKJVQg

>>24090610

Donald Trump ‘watching for full transparency’ from Anthony Albanese in Bondi inquiry amid concerns over PM’s pro-Palestine history

ELIZABETH PIKE - 9 January 2026

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Donald Trump’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism has warned that the United States is watching to see how the Bondi royal commission unfolds amid concerns about Anthony Albanese’s impartiality and the “behaviour” of his government.

Speaking exclusively to The Australian, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun said he was “pleased” the Prime Minister had “recognised the importance” of holding a royal commission. But he said Mr Trump was keeping a close eye on Australia, and concerns remained within the administration about Mr Albanese’s activist past and attendance at pro-Palestinian “protests” as a young Labor MP.

Rabbi Kaploun suggested this may have led to his government turning a “blind eye” to anti-Semitism in the years leading up to the Bondi attack and Mr Albanese’s reluctance in calling a royal commission. “It doesn’t lend him to be a fair and impartial person … which is crucial to finding out what occurred,” Rabbi Kaploun said.

“It wasn’t as if this was unexpected. People have been talking about how this was fermenting for a long time, and yet the Australian government turned a blind eye.

“There was a level of apathy and just no interest to deal with it until a tragedy occurred.

“It is imperative that this commission operate with full transparency, and those who shoulder the blame for these horrific events should be held accountable.”

The Israeli-American Chabad leader was appointed to the top role by Mr Trump last year and he was sworn in just days after the Bondi attack.

As the key adviser to the administration on anti-Semitism at home and abroad, Rabbi Kaploun said Mr Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were “waiting to see” the Albanese government provide answers.

He said Mr Trump was “absolutely well aware” of the tragedy and the President was “shocked and saddened about the loss of life”.

“The secretary and the President are waiting to see that the approach taken is to get to the bottom of what occurred to give people the right to showcase how they’re going to do a better job,” Rabbi Kaploun said. “We are monitoring. We don’t make rash decisions based on one act. We want to see how the government will respond.”

As part of this response, Rabbi Kaploun said there was a “massive responsibility” on the Albanese government to correct its record on anti-Semitism, having stalled on calling a royal commission until the 11th hour following years of “apathy” toward the Jewish community’s concerns.

He was particularly scathing of the lack of action on the anti-Semitism report handed down last year by his Australian counterpart, Jillian Segal.

In the wake of the Bondi attack, Mr Albanese was put under immense pressure to explain why Ms Segal’s report had sat on his desk for six months. “There is no reason why the Special Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism’s recommendations were not implemented a long time ago. It should not take a tragedy for those recommendations to be implemented,” Rabbi Kaploun said. “The government … needed to do more and should have been more on their game.”

Mr Albanese has since implemented Ms Segal’s recommendations in full, while the royal commission, to be led by former High Court judge Virginia Bell, will report back in a year’s time on the massacre and the nature and prevalence of anti-Semitism leading up to the tragedy.

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In his role as anti-Semitism envoy, Rabbi Kaploun is described by the US State Department as the “primary adviser” to the government on “global anti-Semitism issues” while “monitoring and combating acts of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement abroad”.

But the faith leader and businessman – who rose to prominence through his support of Mr Trump’s 2024 election campaign – revealed he was also affected on a personal level by the events that unfolded at Bondi Beach.

Rabbi Kaploun said his father was born in the Victorian town of Shepparton and he “grew up hearing stories about Australia”.

He said he was “haunted by the images” of Sofia and Boris Gurman trying to stop the gunmen before they “ended up dying in each other’s arms”, metres from Australia’s most beloved and recognisable place.

The “unifying” actions of Bondi hero Ahmed al-Ahmed, who was set to meet Mr Trump in New York on Friday, shone a light on the “good and bad in humanity” exemplified in just one tragedy, which Rabbi Kaploun said was ultimately “preventable”.

“And it could have been preventable (with) the right instruments in place and the right monitoring of people who were on the watch list, or who went out of the country to be radicalised and were known to police,” he said.

“We see what inaction allowed hate to do.

“I believe the royal commission – sunshine – will be the best solution for what has occurred, for the mistakes that occurred, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/us-watching-for-full-transparency-in-bondi-inquiry-donald-trumps-antisemitism-envoy-says/news-story/ceed6d5b0ff40e472b59f42147036d43

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udLHtUH2KaQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqccffjUiQ4

>>23978158

>>24085178

Hero of Bondi Ahmed al-Ahmed meets Kevin Rudd on visit to US

JACKSON ROBB - 9 January 2026

Ahmed al-Ahmed, the hero who disarmed one of the Bondi shooters, has called Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd “my hero” while meeting with him in New York, adding that he was “the best prime minister to Australia”.

The 43-year-old father of two announced earlier in the week he would be visiting the US to continue his “treatment journey” after receiving bullet wounds to his hand and shoulder during the terrorist attack.

Dr Rudd and Mr Ahmed spoke about his condition and his recovery in a video published to Mr Ahmed’s social media.

Mr Ahmed said he considered Dr Rudd “my hero” during his time as prime minister, with the pair taking the opportunity to hug and embrace each other.

Mr Ahmed described Australia as “the best country in the world” and told the former prime minister how he had “put my blood for my country”.

“I’m proud, what I did – to save a human being,” Mr Ahmed said.

“You did an extraordinary thing, mate, and we love you for it,” Dr Rudd replied. He praised Mr Ahmed and spoke of how the video of him disarming Sajid Akram “went out across the world.”

“You were the best prime minister for Australia,” Mr Ahmed told Dr Rudd. Dr Rudd thanked Mr Ahmed, replying: “My contributions have been quite small, yours has been very large.”

Mr Ahmed was accompanied by Rabbi Yehoram Ulman when meeting Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. Rabbi Ulman is a survivor from the Bondi attack and a family member of one of the deceased victims.

Mr Schumer thanked Mr Ahmed “for his bravery” and highlighted the importance of Mr Ahmed’s work in uniting people in the aftermath of Bondi.

“You are a hero and you have helped bring us together, not apart,” he said.

Mr Ahmed and Rabbi Ulman also attended a gala event hosted by the Colel Chabad on Wednesday evening. They were honoured by billionaire Bill Ackman who presented Mr Ahmed with a golden menorah and became emotional when speaking of his courage in Bondi.

“The menorah represents endurance, represents courage, represents persistence and, most of all, represents life and light in the darkness. And this man deserves this,” Mr Ackman said.

Mr Ahmed has posted several videos and photos from his time in the US, including visuals of his arrival to airports in New York and Los Angeles and meetings with members of the FBI and the New York police department.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/hero-of-bondi-ahmed-alahmed-meets-kevin-rudd-on-visit-to-us/news-story/601ce9697aaeeffc0cef0cf5d62d6140

https://x.com/AmboRudd/status/2009477323255402516

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr70l-eYToI

>>23908859

‘Abhorrent’: PM slams Elon Musk’s X over sexually explicit images

Mike Foley - January 10, 2026

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed Elon Musk’s social media platform X for failing to meet community standards, declaring its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is enabling abhorrent sexual images without consent of the people depicted.

With his remarks, Albanese joined an international chorus of leaders pledging to take action against so-called nudify sites as the government’s social media watchdog launched an investigation.

“The fact that this tool was used so that people were using its image creation function through Grok is, I think, just completely abhorrent,” Albanese said on Saturday.

“It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility and Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better.”

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley echoed Albanese’s criticism on AI platforms and pledged her support for the government to crack down on images generated without consent.

“It is totally unacceptable and it needs the strongest possible response, and we support any efforts to deliver that strongest possible response,” Ley said on Saturday.

On Friday, Grok turned off image generation and editing capabilities for most of its users, announcing that those capabilities are currently limited to paying subscribers.

The European Commission, the EU’s enforcement body, has said it is investigating nudify services and many countries including the UK, Sweden, Italy, France, Malaysia and India have issued warnings for AI companies to stop the creation of sexual images without consent.

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant on Friday announced she would investigate the surge in sexually explicit images, which related to adults and children. She said companies had the capability to prevent misuse of their products and they must put a stop to the creation of sexual images without consent.

Inman Grant clashed with Musk last year when eSafety demanded that X remove graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney, arguing that global removal was necessary because Australians could use VPNs to access the content. The case was abandoned.

X said in a statement last week that it took action “action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary”.

Musk also issued a post, which said anyone using Grok to make illegal content “will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.

However, following this statement and the threatened crackdown in the UK, Musk has commented and reposted several messages on his platform in the past day that criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and claimed he was censoring free speech, including one that noted Grok currently ranked as the country’s most popular app.

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UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said on Friday she would endorse her country’s regulator if it banned X from her country.

“I would remind xAI that the Online Safety Act Includes the power to block services from being accessed in the UK, if they refuse to comply with UK law. If Ofcom decide to use those powers they will have our full support,” Kendall said.

Previously, Starmer on Thursday described the images as unlawful and intolerable and said his government would take action.

Researchers at AI Forensics, a European non-profit organisation, examined 20,000 images generated by Grok between December 25 and January 1 and found that 53 per cent contained individuals in minimal attire. Of those depicted, 81 per cent were women and 2 per cent appeared to be 18 years old or younger.

The researchers also identified Nazi and ISIS propaganda material generated by Grok.

In Australia, new codes come into force on March 9 to compel AI services, among others, to limit children’s access to sexually explicit content, as well as violent material and themes related to self-harm and suicide.

These regulations follow the eSafety Commission’s enforcement action against a UK-based company that offered two widely used nudify services that allowed its users to manipulate photos of real people.

These services had attracted about 100,000 visitors a month in Australia, and eSafety said they had been used to generate explicit deepfake images of students in Australian schools. The sites were withdrawn from Australia in November after an official warning from eSafety.

Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said on Saturday that no moves to tackle nudify services had been taken seen since September and demanded the government take swift action.

“The government needs to act on this now; the time for talk, empty promises and premature PR tours is over,” McIntosh said.

The European Commission has ordered X to retain all documents relating to Grok while the bloc ensures compliance with its rules after condemning it for producing sexualised images. The Italian regulator is working with the Data Protection Commission – the lead EU privacy authority for X, which has a base in Ireland – and reserved the right to take further action. Sweden said AI-generated images were unacceptable after the country’s deputy prime minister was targeted by a Grok user’s prompt this week.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/abhorrent-pm-slams-elon-musk-s-x-over-sexually-explicit-images-20260110-p5nt0j.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq0rZchhfPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlxbayQPmTk

https://x.com/Safety/status/2007648212421587223

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2007475612949102943

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2009778072082428049

>>23831522 (pb)

>>23814328 (pb)

>>24075586

Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir under renewed scrutiny as shocking speeches reignite debate over Australia’s national security after Bondi attack

Conor Breslin - January 11, 2026

A hardline Islamist group already outlawed in several countries has faced fresh demands to be banned from Australia after staging a rally in Sydney where speakers launched a blistering attack on Western society.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia held the event in Bankstown in late November, drawing a large audience just weeks before the Bondi Beach massacre in which 15 people were killed.

Critics said the timing and the tone of the gathering have only intensified long-standing concerns about the group’s ideology and influence.

At the Highline Venue in Sydney’s south-west, speaker after speaker delivered incendiary messages, praising sharia law as the foundation of a “harmonious society” and calling Islam “the only solution for Muslims and non-Muslims alike”.

The conference, titled Islam: The Change the World Desperately Needs, was promoted as a vision for global transformation.

Radical cleric Mohamad Trad, who gained notoriety last year after calling for a Muslim army and an Islamic state under a “final solution”, addressed the crowd with a lengthy attack on Western values.

“The ugly face of this capitalistic, liberal, secular, capitalist ideology. All of that has come to fruition in the eyes of the whole world in Gaza,” he said.

“Islam, it’s the only solution. It’s the only way for Muslim and non-Muslim alike.”

A separate speaker, filming from a ruin in Gaza, accused Western nations of exploiting the world for their own gain.

“They have seen how the slogans of freedom, democracy and human rights are nothing but a mask for an ugly face hidden by their politicians, the masters of colonialism,” he claimed.

“The West possesses only one value, sucking blood and draining the wealth of humanity.

“Even if it means standing atop mountains of skulls, rivers of blood, and paths of crushed bones.”

The speaker also urged followers to challenge Western influence globally.

“Muslims are the only ones who possess a civilisational project capable of removing capitalism from its global leadership and taking its place to illuminate the world anew,” he said.

“The West fears our civilisational project; it has incited regimes against us.”

One of the group’s most prominent Australian figures, Wassim Doureihi, pressed for action rather than debate, declaring that efforts to establish a Muslim state needed to escalate.

“Brothers and sisters, please, the time to talk about Khilafah is over. The time to work for Khilafah is now,” he said.

“Do the work… don’t do the talk. We are not happy trying to organise conferences. We are in the business of trying to organise a state. The time for talk is over.”

The event has triggered a political backlash, with the Coalition accusing the Albanese government of failing to intervene.

Shadow home affairs minister Jonathon Duniam said the gathering “should not have gone ahead”.

“It is simply unacceptable that they did not stop this conference,” he said.

“The Albanese government has been soft on radical Islamist groups and preachers.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir is already banned in the UK, Germany, Indonesia, India and several other jurisdictions.

Australian intelligence agencies have tracked the group for years but have repeatedly noted that it has avoided crossing the legal threshold that would allow it to be declared a terrorist organisation.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warned at the time that the local chapter “warranted broader scrutiny”.

“Hizb ut-Tahrir wants to test and stretch the boundaries of legality without breaking them … this does not make its behaviour acceptable,” he said.

“I fear its anti-Israel rhetoric is fuelling and normalising wider antisemitic narratives.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has also expressed disgust at the group’s conduct.

“This organisation has been propagating hate for decades and I’ve been publicly opposed to them my whole career,” he said.

“No government has been able to ban them as they didn’t meet the violence threshold.

“The government is lowering the threshold, which means organisations which hate Australia and hate Australians will soon be able to be banned.”

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/islamic-group-hizb-uttahrir-under-renewed-scrutiny-as-shocking-speeches-reignite-debate-over-australias-national-security-after-bondi-attack/news-story/92b333f5be403f2484f5f4866e3039c0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbXwf2ct3-I

General Research #29376

UK Seeks to Partner with Australia and Canada in Censorship Plot Against Elon Musk’s X: Report

The British government has reportedly reached out to fellow leftist-run Anglo-sphere nations Australia and Canada in an attempt to wage a coordinated campaign to potentially ban Elon Musk’s X social media platform.

Earlier this week, UK Prime Minsiter Sir Keir Starmer said that “all options” were on the table, including a potential ban of X in Britain, over users being able to have the platform’s Grok artificial intelligence generate “deepfake” nude images of women and children.

The recently enacted Online Safety Act — passed by the previous “Conservative” government — empowers broadcasting regulator Ofcom to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of a social media firm’s global revenue, and allows for bans in extreme cases.

Yet, apparently reticent to draw the ire of President Donald Trump alone, Downing Street reportedly held talks in recent days with Canberra and Ottawa to craft a joint response to the tech platform, The Telegraph reported.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is pushing for more censorship rules in his own country following the Islamist mass shooting at Bondi Beach last month, said, “The fact that this tool was used so that people were using its image creation function through Grok is, I think, just completely abhorrent. It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility. Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better.”

Toronto MP Evan Solomon, the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation in Mark Caney’s government, denied on Sunday that Canada is considering a ban on X.

For his part, Elon Musk, who has long been critical of the increasingly censorious climate in Britain, accused Starmer’s government of acting “fascist” and suggested that they were merely looking for “any excuse for censorship” of X.

Censorship has become increasingly prevalent in Britain. Despite its long tradition of freedom of speech, the country is arresting around 30 people every day for comments made on social media, or over 12,000 per year. Such offences can include the sharing of “grossly offensive” messages or spreading content of “indecent, obscene or menacing character”.

The banning of X would remove a major headache for the struggling Labour government, which has come under consistent pressure personally from Musk, on issues such as freedom of speech, immigration, and the predominantly Pakistani Muslim child rape gangs and the failures of police and government to protect mostly young white working-class girls.

However, such an action taken against one of President Trump’s key allies and a major American business could risk further angering the White House, which has made fighting censorship in Europe a key foreign policy plank.

Indeed, just last month, the Trump administration sanctioned multiple Europeans, including two Britons, for their involvement in the international censorship industry.

This included Imran Ahmed, the head of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an organisation with close ties to Prime Minsiter Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. The administration has sought to deport Ahmed from the United States for his group’s efforts to censor American conservative outlets, including Breitbart News.

While the CCDH has close ties to the Labour government, the White House has yet to sign off on sanctions against any British government official.

This may change if X is banned, however, with Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna vowing to introduce legislation to sanction Prime Minister Starmer and the UK as a whole should the platform be banned in the UK.

“There are always technical bugs during the early phases of new technology, especially AI, and those issues are typically addressed quickly. X treats these matters seriously and acts promptly. Let’s be clear: this is not about technical compliance. This is a political war against Elon Musk and free speech—nothing more,” she said.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/01/11/uk-seeks-to-partner-with-australia-and-canada-in-censorship-plot-against-elon-musks-x-report/

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Anthony Albanese’s post-Bondi hate speech and gun reforms spark alarm in Coalition ranks

SARAH ISON and ELIZABETH PIKE - 12 January 2026

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Anthony Albanese is urging MPs across politics to criminalise racial hatred and back his gun buyback scheme during an emergency parliamentary sitting week, sparking alarm amid Coalition ranks that Labor’s linking of the bills will make it near impossible to land their full partyroom support.

The Prime Minister on Monday unveiled an omnibus bill in response to the Bondi massacre, which claimed the lives of 15 Jewish Australians, including a plan to prohibit hate groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and impose jail terms of up to 15 years on those who run, fund or join them.

The Islamist hate group has ­already vowed to take Labor to court over the crackdown, which follows years of efforts to expel Hizb ut-Tahrir from Australia, blaming a “Zionist” conspiracy for the introduction of legislation that targets it and others such as the National Socialist Network.

While the scope of the hate speech legislation to be tabled on Tuesday has been kept narrow by focusing strictly on race – in line with what the Coalition has ­demanded for weeks – concern was raised over a provision in the bill exempting views from ­“religious texts”.

According to the bill, the laws do “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 carve-out has raised alarm from Coalition sources that anti-Semitic views could still be espoused as long as a religious text is invoked, such as a passage in the Koran calling Jews and other nonbelievers “the worst of ­creatures”.

However, other Liberal MPs cautiously welcomed the provision, which they believed would protect faith groups such as Christians from having views founded from passages in the Bible – but deemed offensive by some groups – from being criminalised.

While the religious texts exemption will draw criticism from the members of the ­Coalition, the failure for the bill to capture Islamophobia – because such prejudices are founded on religious and not racial grounds – is due attract the ire of the Greens.

But the ability for the bill to criminalise the incitement of ­hatred towards other racial groups – such as Indigenous Australians – was seen as a boon by the minor party.

Despite looming concerns over the draft bill from the Greens and opposition, Mr Albanese urged all parliamentarians to put politics aside and support the legislation, which he suggested was vital for “national unity”.

“I would expect that there will be co-operation,” he said. “I want an Australia that goes to our values, where everyone is respected. Where the Australian covenant is that when people come here, they leave any hatreds and prejudices in the customs hall and recognise the strength that is here in our ­diversity.

“The terrorists at Bondi Beach had hatred in their minds but guns in their hands. This law will deal with both.”

Mr Albanese said while his government had already “spent a lot of time getting this right”, he was “open to constructive suggestions” from parties to improve the bill.

Following weeks of pressure over its response to the explosion of anti-Semitism and the Bondi terror attack, the government described its reform package as the “toughest hate laws Australia has ever seen”, and confirmed the bill would deal with Islamic hate preachers who had been promoting violence and glorifying the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

But Labor’s decision to combine hate speech reform with restrictions around gun ownership was met with immediate cynicism from Sussan Ley that the government was trying to wedge the Coalition.

“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,” she said.

“As is so often the case with this Prime Minister, he is squarely focused on what he perceives to be his political interests, not the national interest. This is a political decision, aimed at fostering division – not creating unity.”

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The gun reforms – which will see a national buyback scheme established and import controls introduced – have raised particular concern among the Nationals, given so many of their constituents are farmers.

Nationals leader David Littleproud said on Friday his party had a strong belief that there was not “a gun problem in this country” but “an extreme Islamic ideological problem”.

The legislation was referred to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security on Monday, which will immediately hold hearings before reporting back on the community’s views by the end of the week.

Parliament will then be recalled next Monday, and be dominated by condolence motions for the Bondi victims before the legislation is debated over the following days.

“People are going to have a week before parliament sits to examine this legislation,” Mr Albanese said in response to criticism the legislative process was now being rushed.

The Labor leader was due to speak with Ms Ley and Greens leader Larissa Waters in the hours after announcing his legislative package, with members of the minor party leaving the door open to working with the government to pass the bill.

“We will be looking closely at this draft legislation and engaging in detailed briefings with the government in coming days,” opposition home affairs spokesman David Shoebridge said.

“The parliament does need to act and we are willing wot work with the government and stakeholders to deliver legislation that gets the balance right, by prohibiting hate speech while retaining essential political freedoms.”

Jewish groups welcomed the legislation, with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry calling the initial details announced by Mr Albanese “a promising sign” of meaningful reform.

However, Christian leaders raised alarm with the omnibus bill, with Sydney Diocese Religious Freedom Reference Group chair, Anglican Bishop Michael Stead, saying he had “very significant concerns” about the draft laws.

“We are concerned about the proposal to create a new category of prohibited hate groups as this appears to be similar to what already exists for proscribed terrorist organisations but with a much lower bar,” Dr Stead said. “On what basis then is someone going to be listed as a Prescribed Hate Group? All we need is the winds of social policy to change in 20 years and Christian teachings are deemed hateful and the Anglican Church is suddenly a hate group.”

Australian Christian Lobby chief executive Michelle Pearse raised similar doubts about the plan to increase penalties for existing hate speech offences across the board, which already capture sexuality and gender identity.

The faith leaders also raised concern that the bill would rely on “judges making subjective decisions about what constitutes hatred” which was “deeply problematic”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/pm-anthony-albanese-unveils-new-hate-speech-laws-parliament-to-be-recalled-for-next-monday/news-story/77d4b3b703b286ef0d9d56079dd3847c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqKCdL0AMCc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dYKw-dL4Bw

‘She had our backs – we got hers’: Hero Bondi Westfield cop diagnosed with cancer

Perry Duffin and Jack Gramenz - January 12, 2026

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The heroic NSW Police officer who confronted and killed a knife-wielding attacker who took six lives and injured a dozen more in Bondi Junction Westfield has been diagnosed with cancer, spurring a wave of support and donations from Australians.

Inspector Amy Scott ran towards danger as Joel Cauchi stabbed shoppers with a military-style knife inside the eastern suburbs shopping centre on April 13, 2024.

Scott was alone when she faced the attacker minutes after his rampage began. She raised her pistol and, as Cauchi charged towards her, shot him dead – preventing the further loss of life, including her own.

NSW Police Legacy on Monday announced that Scott had been diagnosed with a “rare and aggressive form of breast cancer” and launched an appeal to ease the financial burden on her family.

“Beyond her dedicated service to the community, Amy is a devoted wife, a loving mother of two young boys, and has a family who depend on her and walk this journey beside her every day,” Legacy wrote online.

“Amy is widely known as selfless, compassionate, and one of the kindest people you could ever meet.

“She is every bit the remarkable human you would think. She is fiercely independent and the first to champion others.”

Legacy’s fundraiser said Scott faced a “long, uphill battle” against the insidious disease.

“This is a powerful reminder that even our strongest people are human, and this fundraiser has been created to ease the financial burden for Amy and her family during this incredibly challenging time.”

Legacy has so far raised more than $190,000.

Hundreds of messages of support flooded in on Monday, along with the donations, many thanking Scott for her service as an officer.

“She showed a heap of courage that day. She had our backs – we got hers,” Shane Brownlee wrote.

“Amy you have been so strong and brave in choosing a career with the police and then especially with your actions at Bondi shopping centre that you will get through this. Love and prayers are with you,” Pam Halcrow wrote.

One donor gave $7500 without even leaving their name.

Many donations came from other police, including from interstate forces.

“From one of your blue family xx,” one wrote.

Survivors of breast cancer also encouraged Scott with hundreds of messages on social media.

Scott was given a Commissioner’s Valour Award “for displaying exceptional bravery in a life-threatening situation” at a police graduation ceremony in June 2024 by then-commissioner Karen Webb.

Webb’s successor, Commissioner Mal Lanyon, on Monday said that Scott was “surrounded by the unwavering love and support of the entire NSW Police Force”.

“I also know that the broader community is holding Amy and her family in their thoughts and extend their heartfelt support during this time,” Lanyon said.

“Despite everything Amy is facing, she continues to show the remarkable person that she is by going out of her way to support her workmates, regularly coming into the station to offer comfort and assistance to those impacted by the recent Bondi terror attack.”

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Scott had quietly taken a leave of absence after the inquest into the Bondi Junction stabbing in the middle of 2025.

She had told the inquest she had run into the shopping centre, resigned to her belief that she was going to die.

“Whilst I was the person who faced Joel, those same officers [went in too] … I just want to acknowledge their courage and bravery,” Scott told the inquest.

“As tragic as that day was, it restored my faith in humanity.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns on Monday said that Scott “is a genuine, bona fide Australian hero”.

“[She is] someone we owe a huge debt of gratitude to, not just because of her heroic actions in Bondi Junction of a couple of years ago, but she has been an inspiration to the exact same officers that attended the terrorism event on the 14th of December,” Minns said at a press conference on Monday.

“She is so important for NSW Police and our community. I’m devastated to hear this news. If anyone deserves a break it’s Amy, and we just wish her the very best, she is an absolute champion.”

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley described Scott as “the epitome of the brilliance of the NSW Police Force”.

“The whole police family are suffering at the moment with the knowledge of her diagnosis. We wish her and her family well.”

Catley said that Scott was the first person to call the local commander to offer assistance on the night of the Bondi Beach terror attack in December.

“She’s always the first one to put up her hand, to be there to support her colleagues, to support the community, and to be the best that she can be as a police officer,” Catley said. “We wish her all the best, and she will have our full support.”

Deputy Commissioner announces retirement

It came as Catley paid tribute to Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell, who announced his retirement on Monday after more than four decades of service.

Thurtell joined the force in 1985, first posted to Redfern Police Station.

He was awarded the NSW Police Commissioner’s Commendation for Service after he co-led the largest policing operation ever undertaken in regional NSW in the search for wanted murderer Malcolm Naden, who was arrested in 2012 after nearly seven years on the run.

Thurtell also led the COVID-19 hotel quarantine and repatriation operation in 2020.

“He will leave the NSW Police force with his head held high,” Catley said.

“He has an impeccable police record, and he will be recognised as he exits … as one of the best police officers we have seen here in NSW.”

Thurtell will be formally farewelled at a ceremony on February 13.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/hero-cop-amy-scott-diagnosed-with-cancer-20260112-p5ntbg.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nson2_utak4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wred-MpJpzo

https://qresear.ch/?q=Amy+Scott

https://qresear.ch/?q=Joel+Cauchi

https://www.policelegacynsw.org.au/fundraise/inspector-amy-scott-appeal

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Coalition on track to split over Labor’s post-Bondi Beach massacre hate speech and guns omnibus bill next week

SARAH ISON - 13 January 2026

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The Coalition may split on Labor’s hate speech and gun reforms, with several MPs including former Nationals leader Michael McCormack confirming their view that the Liberals would ultimately vote for the omnibus bill while the Nationals would not support it.

It comes as Sussan Ley’s intra-Liberal Party rival, Andrew Hastie, warned he would not vote for a bill that breached the principle of religious freedom amid concerns that other faith groups would be impacted by the legislation.

“I’m unlikely to support the bill given its likely impact on broad religious freedoms,” Mr Hastie said.

All Liberal and Nationals MPs who spoke to The Australian were united in their criticism of Anthony Albanese for combining the bills in a clear move to wedge the Coalition. However, several Liberals urged for Ms Ley to push ahead and find a way to support the legislation designed to address the antisemitism crisis.

In comparison, senior Nationals MPs said the junior party – representing regional and rural areas – would never support legislation that restricted firearms in the way proposed.

Mr McCormack, the deputy prime minister between 2018 and 2021, said there was “definitely” a live prospect of the two Coalition parties coming to different positions on the omnibus bill.

“I can see it happening,” he told The Australian. “The Liberals supported the gun reforms in NSW and the Nationals didn’t. So take a look at that.

“Guns don’t kill people. People with murderous intent kill people. The fact is people don’t think that non citizens should have guns, and you’ll even get your farmers who will say that there needs to be some clarity over the categories of certain guns, that’s one thing. But taking guns away from law abiding citizens, farmers and recreational shooters is a bridge too far from the National Party, and I cannot see us supporting it.”

Two senior Liberal MPs also confirmed their view that it was “possible” the Coalition would split over the issue.

“It wouldn’t be the end of the world, it’s not an election position. They could work, we could vote for it and it gets passed … it’s not ideal but it’s a way forward,” one Liberal MP said.

“The vast majority of the community, if you ask them, they don’t have a direct involvement with guns, their view is ‘they’re bad get rid of them’.”

Some Liberals privately expressed frustration at Nationals colleagues, suggesting the gun reforms would not “take guns off farmers”.

“So what’s actually their problem?” one Liberal MP said.

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While several Liberal MPs said they hoped the party would support the bill after months of calling for action on antisemitism, a rump of conservative Liberal MPs indicated their opposition to the hate speech laws.

Garth Hamilton, Mr Hastie and Ben Small were among those that indicated they would not support the bill in its current form, while Henry Pike said he held concerns over the legislation.

“The proposed racial vilification offence risks protecting extremists and punishing those who challenge them. Radical Islamist hatred will shelter behind religious exemptions, while those of us who want to make a secular critique of extremist views, or cultural practices incompatible with Australian values, will have to run the risk of a criminal charge,” Mr Pike said.

“Feeling intimidated is enough to trigger a crime carrying up to five years in jail. A Chinese-Australian may feel intimidated by a social post condemning Beijing’s naval incursions … A Palestinian-Australian could cite intimidation over criticism of Labor’s dodgy visa vetting processes. This is 18C on steroids. Backed by handcuffs and a five-year prison sentence.”

Mr Small said: “The test for this legislation is whether or not it makes it harder for radical Islam to spread in Australia. This legislation fails that test by making it more difficult for secular criticism”.

The WA MP said he was concerned the religious texts exemption still allowed for “extremist Islamic” views against Jewish people to be expressed.

“I’m surprised any Liberal in their right mind is considering any other position (than voting against it),” he said.

Despite this, several MPs said they believed Ms Ley should commit the Liberals to supporting legislation, even if some ranks of the party room did not agree with her.

“We vote for the leader, and the leader needs to lead us. And so that involves consulting, but sometimes you’ve got to make a decision. You’re never going to get everyone happy,” one Liberal MP said.

Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck – who lived through Port Arthur – said, “we’ve got a responsibility to come to some sort of resolution here” and help the government pass the legislation.

While slamming Mr Albanese for his politicising of the matter and move to wedge the Coalition, Senator Colbeck said he would be “conducting himself” in a way that was not partisan.

“That’s what the Australian community is saying to me they expect,” he said. “This is the time for calm and sensible politics not wild rhetoric. That’s how I’ll be applying things from my point of view.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/coalition-on-track-to-split-over-labors-postbondi-beach-massacre-hate-speech-and-guns-omnibus-bill-next-week/news-story/fec664a170aa80ad3899b2b81e87aa98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1MPNWGhtqU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3n-IH5XQY

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‘Honour to serve’: Kevin Rudd’s surprise exit sparks search for Donald Trump whisperer

JOE KELLY and BEN PACKHAM - 13 January 2026

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Anthony Albanese faces a pivotal decision on who can best manage Australia’s relationship with the Trump administration and safeguard the US alliance amid escalating global upheaval, after Kevin Rudd made the shock decision to step down as the nation’s ambassador in Washington a full year ahead of schedule.

Former Labor ministers Joel Fitzgibbon and Stephen Conroy have emerged as the leading contenders to succeed Dr Rudd, while Australia’s recently returned ambassador to Japan, Justin Hayhurst, and Defence Department secretary Greg Moriarty have been identified as potential candidates if the government opts for a non-political appointment.

Trade Minister Don Farrell has also been canvassed as a possibility, although he played down his interest in the position.

And there was speculation former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison – who enjoyed a close relationship with Mr Trump during the US President’s first term – could be in the mix, but sources said he was highly unlikely to be tapped by the Prime Minister.

Dr Rudd will step down as ­Australia’s top diplomat in Washington at the end of March to serve as global president of the Asia Society, the New York-based think tank he previously led from 2021 to 2023.

He will take up the new role from March 31 and also lead the Asia Society’s Centre for China Analysis, giving him a fresh platform to publicly critique the Trump administration’s policies especially on US-China relations just as the US President is due to make his high-stakes visit to ­Beijing in April.

His successor will have to shepherd through the next phase of the AUKUS partnership, including the deployment of US submarines to Western Australia from 2027, while working to keep the Trump administration’s focus on Indo-Pacific security as it pivots its ­attention to Latin America.

Mr Albanese was forced to tamp down speculation on Tuesday the diplomatic shake-up had been influenced by pressure from Mr Trump over dissatisfaction with Dr Rudd’s performance or his past disparaging remarks about the US President. The Prime Minister said it was “entirely Kevin Rudd’s decision” to move on before his term was up.

“This opportunity was there for Kevin. He is finishing up a year early, but he has served for three years … he’s moving on to a role that he believes is pivotal,” Mr Albanese said.

When asked if Mr Trump had asked for Dr Rudd to move on, a White House official told The Australian: “Ambassador Rudd worked well with President Trump and the administration. We wish him well.”

Mr Albanese praised Dr Rudd’s performance as ambassador, saying he had “developed ­relationships across the board, across congress, across the Senate, across Democrat and Republican members and, of course, across civil society and across officials.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Dr Rudd “secured US congressional support for authorising legislation for AUKUS, with full bipartisan support as well as full presidential endorsement from both Presidents Biden and Trump”.

“Kevin negotiated and concluded the Critical Minerals and Rare Earths Framework Agreement with the US,” she said.

“Kevin’s helped unlock billions of dollars in new investment and collaboration, including AI data centres and Quantum … And he’s put Australia’s superannuation industry on the map with the US.”

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While Mr Fitzgibbon and Mr Conroy have emerged as prominent frontrunners to succeed Dr Rudd, given the posting has gone to former politicians in recent years, his successor’s credentials would require the approval of the Trump administration.

This requirement could pose a significant hurdle for Mr Conroy, the former Leader of the government in the Senate, who last year derided Mr Trump’s approach to international diplomacy as “moronically stupid” after the US administration imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India.

However, both Mr Conroy and Mr Fitzgibbon are golfers – a skill seen as useful given former ­ambassador Joe Hockey’s forging of a personal relationship with Mr Trump on the golf course.

Labor insiders also said the two former ministers had the right temperament and experience for the job, although both men declined to comment.

Responding to speculation that he could be appointed, Senator Farrell told The Australian he was “very flattered but I love the job of Trade Minister and there is still plenty to do”.

Despite stepping down as ambassador, Dr Rudd will continue to use the vast network of contacts he cultivated within congress and the Trump administration in his new role at the Asia Society. He will also continue to spend time in Washington and has offered to provide any assistance to his successor if it is requested.

Democratic co-chair of the ­bipartisan Friends of Australia Caucus in the US Congress, Joe Courtney, described Dr Rudd as a “force of nature in terms of advancing one of the most complex legislative agendas for the nation of Australia in many decades.”

“Enactment by congress of AUKUS authorities in December 2023 required relentless interaction and presence on The Hill, with the White House, and the Department of Defence. Overnight, Ambassador Rudd earned the respect of members on both sides of the aisle because of his deep understanding of the Indo-Pacific region, the People’s Republic of China, and the critical importance of the US-Australia alliance,” he said.

Australian ambassador to Washington from 2005 to 2010 Dennis Richardson said Dr Rudd had been “outstanding” in the role and it was a “shame he is going after three years”.

“His achievements in the time he’s been there have been very, very significant indeed. So his time as ambassador shouldn’t be measured in terms of duration. It should be measured in terms of achievement,” he said.

Dr Rudd drew heavy criticism as ambassador for his past criticism of Mr Trump as “the most destructive president in history” and a “traitor to the West”. These comments saw him become the subject of an awkward exchange with Mr Trump at Mr Albanese’s October 20 White House meeting with the US President.

Pressed by the media on Dr Rudd’s past remarks, Mr Trump asked if the criticism was “bad” and then suggested “maybe he’ll like to apologise … Where is he? Is he still working,” not recognising that the ambassador was sitting across from him.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/entirely-kevins-decision-rudd-resigns-as-us-ambassador/news-story/7e4d946b0e5ef1ac52068161524e86bc

https://x.com/AmboRudd/status/2010853883543711952

https://x.com/MrKRudd/status/2010826883294703776

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX1bRyEueug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhD5xoPUY1s

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‘Ghoulish reminder’: Premier calls for demolition of Bondi footbridge

Chris Minns has called for the footbridge where the Bondi terror attack was carried out to be demolished out of concerns it may be ‘exploited’ in the future, ahead of Waverley Council voting on the matter.

Thomas Sargeant - January 14, 2026

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The Premier has called for the demolition of Bondi’s now-infamous footbridge used in last month’s terror attack, ahead of councillors in the suburb voting on the site’s future.

Chris Minns said on Wednesday while victims and their families should have the final say on the matter, he would hate for the footbridge where the massacre took place “to be a ghoulish reminder or even exploited by reprehensible people in the future”.

“We can’t allow one of the most beautiful places on earth to be remembered forever and only as a place of horrible terrorism, because it’s so much more than that,” Mr Minns said.

The comments on the site’s fate came after council revealed a previously commissioned confidential report found the beach’s two footbridges, including one on the northern side which was used to carry out the attack, were already slated for replacement.

Waverley Council will meet on Thursday evening in an extraordinary meeting to determine what actions they will take to mark the site of the terror attack, which will include discussions on the confidential structural report.

The August 2024 report concluded the pedestrian bridges “are reaching the end of their useful life and require replacement within several years”.

“The replacement of the northern pedestrian bridge may form part of a future discussion of a permanent memorial,” the council agenda reads.

The motion around a commemoration and memorial process is expected to pass, and will request council staff to make a plan to replace the footbridges without yet committing to their demolition.

Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh said community consultation is ongoing, and the motion “does not propose a determination either way about the future of the bridge”.

“There are a variety of views in the community about what should happen to the bridge and while I understand the sense of urgency among some in the community, this is not a decision we can rush,” Mr Nemesh said.

“There are many beautiful ideas being shared, but taking our time to hear everyone’s views, especially those of grieving families, is the right thing to do. We should not rush this important process. We want to get it right.”

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Putting on an art exhibition and establishing a permanent memorial to the victims of the attack are set to be considered and voted on by councillors at the upcoming meeting, as well as the relocation of a half-court for basketball earlier planned for the area.

Renaming of the park or playground is not on the agenda, as it is understood to be part of further consultation in coming months.

This is despite widespread calls for a permanent memorial to Matilda Bee, including a change.org petition with more than 11,000 signatures at the time of publication to rename Bondi Park Playground in her honour.

Petition creator Jordan Vic said the signatures marked “a huge number” of supporters, and renaming the playground was a worthwhile cause.

“I’m Russian-Ukrainian and Jewish,” the 25-year-old said.

“This is a piece of land where people had their lives taken, we know it was a prejudiced attack.”

Mr Vic said he is a friend of Matilda’s family, and they have approved of his efforts so victims of the attack “can have a place to come back to where they lost their loved ones”.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/wentworth-courier/ghoulish-reminder-premier-calls-for-demolition-of-bondi-footbridge/news-story/5190fb06c1d018b4b3ee176eb0e23335

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTlgDRGvFEQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhD481a436w

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‘Deeply perverse’: US State Department official takes aim at Labor’s hate speech laws

ELIZABETH PIKE - 13 January 2026

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A senior US state department official has admonished the Australian government’s overhaul of hate speech laws, describing a new racial vilification offence included in the legislation as “clumsy” and potentially “deeply perverse”.

The department’s under secretary of state for public diplomacy Sarah Rogers hit out at the package in response to a post on X by Australian activist Drew Pavlou who claimed Labor’s hate speech bill allowed “Muslim extremists to continue preaching hate so long as they can argue they are directly quoting or referencing the Koran”.

“The Australian government now plans to introduce 5 year prison sentences for amorphous acts of “hate speech” – defined in such broad terms that it might cover even the most basic calls to lower migration or deport jihadist extremists,” Pavlou said.

Ms Rogers, a top-ten ranking official within the department reporting directly to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said she hoped this wasn’t what the laws intended.

“A statute that imprisons you for calling to deport jihadist extremists — but provides safe harbour if you are a jihadist extremist — would be deeply perverse. Let’s hope this isn’t what Australia intends,” she said.

“This could be a clumsy effort to avoid the disgraces seen in Europe + UK, where citizens are jailed for quoting the Bible or even praying silently.

“But the problem with “hate speech” laws — one problem of many — is that they’re enforced by the kinds of people who coddle actual violent zealots, so long as they seem subaltern.”

In a separate post on the new laws, Ms Rogers emphasised the Trump administration’s support for religious freedoms though said the bill could “distort the public sphere”.

“Religious freedom is a core value of our administration, but protecting speech *only* if it’s religious, while arresting people for secular rejoinders, may distort the public sphere in ways that even progressive censorship enthusiasts dislike,” she said

Anthony Albanese on Tuesday left faith leaders stunned after attempting to justify a carve out clause for religious texts, set to be left to the courts to determine which texts and passages are included, by pointing to the Old Testament.

An interrogation of the draft laws by a snap parliamentary committee on Tuesday also failed to quell doubts about the loophole, which would include a special exemption for people who incite hatred on the grounds of race if they can prove they were “directly quoting” or “referencing” scripture for the sake of “religious teaching or discussion”.

The provision has sparked alarm within the Coalition about whether it will “incentivise hate speech” instead of protecting religious views, while Jewish leaders called for the government to abandon the “outdated” idea altogether.

But it was up to department officials to field questions about the new laws after the Prime Minister could not say what religious phrases had prompted the exemption, instead telling journalists at an early morning press conference to “read the Old Testament”.

When pushed to point out what parts of the Old Testament would discriminate based on race – breaching the law and therefore justifying the exemption – Mr Albanese again told reporters to refer to their Bibles.

“I encourage you to read the Old Testament and see what’s there and see if you outlaw that, what would occur. So, we need to be careful,” Mr Albanese said.

Anglican Bishop Michael Stead said he was confused by Mr Albanese’s comments as it was “hard to see any part” of the Old Testament that would meet the brief.

“I looked at his remarks and the point he is making is not clear, some things which are likely to cause fear or intimidation or harassment in the Old Testament are not so much on racial grounds, but more broadly on other grounds and that has been the experience overseas with passages on gender and sexuality,” Bishop Stead said.

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Attorney-General’s Department deputy secretary Sarah Chidgey also struggled to fill in the blanks for Mr Albanese when she fronted the joint committee hearing hours later.

In response to questions about what religious texts and phrases had been carved-out for protection, Ms Chidgey said “that would be considered by a court”.

“We would take it to be the central texts of any religion but it would need to be considered by a court, and we’ve explained that it would include scripture, translation of texts of central importance to the religious practice of various religions,” she said.

The parameters of “religious teachings” or “discussions” would be narrow but also left open for individual judges to interpret, Ms Chidgey suggested.

According to the draft omnibus bill, the government is seeking to introduce a new offence for inciting hatred on the grounds of race or racial supremacy in order to intimidate, harass or cause violence.

But this includes a key defence that would ensure the law “does not apply” when people quote or reference religious texts for the purposes of teaching or discussion.

The Attorney-General’s Department suggested the exemption would not apply to inciting violence – limiting it to cases of harassment and intimidation – and the burden would be put on the speaker to prove they were ­repeating scripture.

The exemption is effectively a “copy and paste” of the provision introduced to recent NSW hate speech laws, which was opposed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry at the time.

ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said his objections were all the more relevant after he faced notorious antisemitic cleric Wissam Haddad in the Federal Court last year.

Haddad tried to use the new “religious text” defence at the time to argue his lectures were not discriminatory, as he was merely quoting the Koran when he referred to Jewish people as “vile and treacherous”.

Mr Wertheim had to call in ­Koranic experts to refute the argument, which was ultimately successful and won the landmark case, forcing Haddad to take down his lectures.

In response to the bid to copy the law on the federal level, Mr Wertheim said “the entire concept” of the exemption was a “relic of outdated thinking”.

“None of the world’s recognised religions promote racial hatred knowingly and deliberately, and to the extent that any religion were to do so, it would be thoroughly shameful,” Mr Wertheim said.

“Invoking religion as an excuse to dehumanise and mistreat others, simply on the basis of who they are, must surely be a thing of the past.”

Some English translations of the Koran have been referenced as potential examples of speech that would be protected under the carve-out, including phrases that call Jews and Christians “the worst of all beings” for being “wilfully deaf and dumb … in the sight of Allah”.

While a niche interpretation of the “mark of Cain” by the Church of the Latter-Day Saints had been used to discriminate against people of colour, however, the church disavowed this belief in 1978.

Christian leaders, including Mr Stead and Australian Christian Churches Pastor Mark Edwards, said they were not aware of any other passages in the Old Testament that could justify the exemption for the text, contradicting Mr Albanese’s claims.

“I’ve got no idea what he was referring to. I don’t see what he was saying or why he raised that,” Mr Edwards.

“I am for hate speech reform but the legislation that has come out is large and we need time to consider that instead of rushing it through in one week. And in addition to that, the federal royal commission has been tasked with dealing with this issue.”

Muslim groups and Equality Australia have also raised issue with the offence due to its focus on race and not other attributes such as religion and gender.

They said they were not consulted on the draft laws, which will be debated by parliament next Tuesday.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/top-jewish-body-slams-religious-texts-carveout-in-anthony-albaneses-hate-speech-bill/news-story/a16c0a00ed242fe3cd896131e68a4d40

https://x.com/UnderSecPD/status/2011032089949622600

https://x.com/UnderSecPD/status/2011040489898754465

Author Craig Silvey’s books pulled from stores after child exploitation charges

PAUL GARVEY - 14 January 2026

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Books have been pulled from shelves, school reading lists across the country have been amended and at least one theatre production has been indefinitely postponed in the fallout from the arrest of prominent author Craig Silvey on child exploitation charges.

Mr Silvey – whose best-selling works include Jasper Jones, Honey­bee and Runt – was understood to still be behind bars on Wednesday after he was unable to post both the $100,000 surety and $100,000 personal undertaking ordered by the court as part of bail conditions.

He was arrested in Fremantle on Monday by Child Exploitation Operations Unit detect­ives, who allegedly found him “actively engaging with other child exploitation offenders online”.

Major Australian book store Dymocks and independent bookshop Readings both pulled all of his works from their websites after the revelations, while his books were listed as “out of stock” on the website of the nation’s biggest book retailer, QBD.

Dymocks chief executive David Allen confirmed it had moved to stop the sale of Mr Silvey’s books soon after news of his arrest broke. “Starting from yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, we have taken steps to remove any Craig Silvey titles from sale across the distribution channels of our Dymocks business,” he said.

“Due to the recent events and the unfolding situation, we have made the decision to remove all of Craig Silvey’s titles from sale and from the shop floor.”

His novels, however, were still available for purchase through online-only retailers Booktopia and Angus & Robertson.

Sydney performing arts group Belvoir St Theatre had been scheduled to host a stage adaptation of Mr Silvey’s Runt in September, but said it had now paused those plans.

“Belvoir is aware of the deeply distressing charges brought against Mr Craig Silvey in a WA court this week. Belvoir is taking this matter very seriously, and stands firmly with survivors of child abuse and exploitation, and their families,” it said in a statement.

“Whilst Mr Silvey is not directly involved with Belvoir’s stage adaptation of Runt, Belvoir has nonetheless indefinitely paused work on, promotion of and sales for that production while these charges are dealt with by police and the court.”

Mr Silvey’s works had long been staples on school reading lists and curriculums, but education departments across the country have moved to remove his books from lesson plans and school libraries.

A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education confirmed that state public schools would cease using any texts by Mr Silvey and remove his titles from their school collections while legal proceedings were under way.

Victoria, meanwhile, has removed teaching resources relating to Mr Silvey’s Runt as part of its response. “Craig Silvey’s texts have been removed from the Victorian Lesson Plans, are not on any VCE English, VCE English as an Additional Language or VCE Literature lists, and his books will not feature in the 2026 Premier’s Reading Challenge,” a spokesman for the Victorian Department of Education said.

South Australia’s Department for Education is also taking action.

“We will be advising schools to cease using his books while he is subject to court proceedings,” a spokeswoman said. “This advice will be provided before school resumes on 27 January.”

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Queensland’s Department of Education said there were no Silvey books on the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s prescribed test list, but the department was recommending the removal of his books from state schools while the allegations were investigated.

Tasmanian Education Minister Jo Palmer has directed that Mr Silvey’s novels be removed from Tasmanian government schools while the legal process is underway.

In Mr Silvey’s home state of Western Australia, both Jasper Jones and Mr Silvey’s debut novel Rhubarb were until now on the list of texts available for study by the state’s year 11 and 12 literature students.

WA Education Minister Sabine Winton said while students who had previously studied those texts would be able to use them without penalty in this year’s exams, she had asked the state’s education departments to cease using the books for this school year.

WA Premier Roger Cook said he agreed with Ms Winton’s decision. “I think that the minister has made the right decision here, but we have chosen our language very carefully. These are accusations and must be treated as such and we must now allow the process of justice to take its course,” he said.

The City of Subiaco has already announced the short story competition for WA school students named after Mr Silvey since 2023 would no longer carry his name.

His publisher, Allen & Unwin, has said it had cancelled all promotional activity around his works while the legal process played out.

Mr Silvey has been charged with one count of distribution of child exploitation material and one count of possession of child exploitation material.

Magistrate Thomas Hall reportedly told the author at his hearing on Tuesday that imprisonment was “a likely outcome” in the event he was convicted.

His books are among some of the most popular and celebrated novels in the country. Both Honeybee and Jasper Jones were voted into last year’s Radio National Top 100 Books of the 21st Century at 25th and 24th respectively, while The Australian’s Culture team ranked Jasper Jones – a story of a teenage boy in a rural Australian town in the 1960s – as the eighth-best book of the past 25 years ; it has sold more than half a million copies worldwide.

The novel was in 2017 adapted into a film starring Toni Colette and Hugo Weaving.

Mr Silvey is best known to younger readers for Runt, the story of a little girl and her rescue dog, which sold more than 150,000 copies and was also made into a feature film. The book’s sequel, Runt and the Diabolical Dognapping, was published last year and Mr Silvey travelled to schools around the country to promote its release.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/author-craig-silveys-books-pulled-from-stores-after-child-exploitation-charges/news-story/ec3729766004d03c32e663e827ca53da

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrj9Qs1g8uQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MEdbx4pNjI

>>23895384

AFP chief hails arrest of gangland boss Kazem Hamad in Iraq

DAMON JOHNSTON and MOHAMMAD ALFARES - 14 January 2026

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Krissy Barrett quickly designated Kazem Hamad Australia’s most wanted man and a “national security threat” after taking the job as the nation’s top cop – that was easy.

The hard part was throwing the accused global drug trafficker, fire bomber and illegal tobacco kingpin behind bars, preferably Australian bars. But if not here, then an Iraqi prison would be a start.

This week’s capture of the exiled Hamad, who is also suspected of involvement in the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue, delivers a decisive blow to the man who has pocketed tens of millions of dollars flogging illegal ciggies on Aussie streets and assumed he was untouchable in Iraq.

Last July, then-deputy commissioner Barrett revealed Hamad was suspected of involvement in the synagogue attack that shattered Melbourne’s Jewish community and sowed the evil seeds of anti-Semitism.

“That is a name that has come up … it remains one of our ongoing lines of inquiry,” Barrett said.

By late last year, Barrett was running the show as Australian Federal Police Commissioner and while she raised the rhetoric about bringing Hamad to justice, she also empowered the agency to draw on its global law-and-order network, which included her travelling to Marrakech to attend a major Interpol conference. Before leaving for Morocco, Barrett confirmed enlisting Middle Eastern police chiefs to help crackdown on illicit tobacco trafficking was among her priorities.

“The bilateral meetings and having sideline exchanges at these sessions are invaluable, and I will be asking relevant partners to collaborate with the AFP more often and take symbiotic action in the interests of our countries,” she said.

“Under my commissionership, the AFP will supercharge our work offshore and that means we will take more deliberate and active actions in how we use our reach and partners.”

Less publicly, AFP officers were travelling into the volatile Middle Eastern country and intelligence about Hamad was shared with Iraqi officials. But with Hamad’s capacity to pay millions of dollars to stay free, would Iraqi police swoop?

The answer came in an extraordinary three-paragraph statement released early on Wednesday by Iraq’s National Centre for International Judicial Co-operation announcing that in response to an official request from Australia, Hamad was under arrest.

Iraq’s General Directorate of Narcotics had indeed swooped on him for allegedly trafficking drugs into Iraq and the statement described him as “one of the most dangerous wanted men in the world”.

“He is responsible for importing large quantities of drugs into Iraq and Australia, as well as smuggling heroin,” the centre stated, going on to link him to organised crime and being responsible for “shootings, murders, kidnappings, violent assaults, extortion and drug imports”.

“Furthermore, he is involved with outlaw gangs that have extensive influence within Australia and the Middle East and are responsible for carrying out murders, shootings, money laundering, fraud, assaults, arson and drug trafficking on a global level.”

After the Iraqi statement dropped, Barrett hailed the arrest as a “significant disruption” to his global crime empire that has wrought so much pain in his former hometown of Melbourne.

“This arrest is a significant disruption to an alleged serious criminal and his alleged criminal enterprise in Australia,” Barrett said in a statement on Wednesday.

“AFP members have met with a number of agencies offshore about this alleged offender … I have had one-on-one conversations with law enforcement principals about this alleged offender.”

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The decision to work towards getting Hamad locked up in Iraq represents a significant strategic shift for the AFP, which had previously been more risk-averse.

The lack of an extradition treaty with Iraq tilted the balance in favour of disrupting his criminal enterprise by having him arrested – and prosecuted – in his former safe haven.

But it’s a strategy with risks. Barrett’s statement on Wednesday was notable because it made no reference to extraditing Hamad.

The Australian understands the AFP has not ruled out attempting to bring him back home to face justice and, with his ability to pay bribes, Hamad buying his way out of his Iraqi prison cannot be ruled out.

But as it stands, based on their actions this week and strongly worded statement, Iraqi authorities seem to think jail is the best place for him.

Hamad was deported from Australia in 2023 after serving an eight-year prison sentence for his role in a drug-trafficking syndicate.

He quickly set about establishing himself on a global scale, with tentacles stretching into the suburban tobacco shops of Melbourne. Dozens were firebombed as a turf war erupted.

After the arrest news broke, Barrett reiterated that Hamad was her No. 1 target.

“Last year I announced my No. 1 target, an alleged offshore offender who I called a national security threat to this country,” she said.

Barrett said that after taking over the job of leading the AFP she was focused on “supercharging” the agency’s global reach.

“I set a number of new priorities to identify and target those causing the most harm to Australia,” she said.

“This means our members, who are based in more than 30 countries, are more actively leveraging our expertise, capability and partnerships to keep Australians safe.

“The best way to keep Australians safe is to stop crime happening here in the first place – especially if it is being directed from offshore.

“While the AFP had been working with domestic partners to dismantle this alleged offender’s criminal network, a number of significant events required the AFP to supercharge its efforts in targeting this alleged offender offshore.

“Since that time, the AFP has undertaken significant investigative work, including deploying offshore for the purpose of intelligence gathering.”

Hamad was also publicly named by federal and Victorian police after a series of arson attacks, including a botched fire in Truganina that killed innocent woman Katie Tangey, who was house-­sitting for her brother.

The crime boss was also allegedly linked to the murder of former bikie and gangland kingpin Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim.

His grip on the market since a violent battle over the lucrative trade erupted in early 2023 has been linked to almost 200 firebombing attacks and widespread extortion, targeting rival operators and innocent businesses.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/tobacco-kingpin-and-gangland-boss-kazem-hamad-arrested-in-iraq/news-story/eeab338e6aced1231de32437a1acb73c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68swNv2yos8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3bZih_9Dkc

>>23873289

>>23887892

>>23978158

>>23996350

>>24075586

Australia’s biggest Nazi group to disband to escape jail ahead of crackdown

Sherryn Groch and Paul Sakkal - January 13, 2026

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Australia’s biggest neo-Nazi group will disband by the end of the week to avoid lengthy jail time as the Albanese government moves to outlaw extremist groups after the Bondi terror attack.

On Tuesday, in an internal announcement from within the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network (NSN) leaked to this masthead, leader Thomas Sewell and his state leadership told members that the organisation would be “disbanded in full” by midnight on Sunday.

The decision came hours after the government released the draft legislation of its new hate speech crackdown, to be debated by parliament next week, which include penalties of up to 15 years’ jail for those found to belong to or support outlawed groups, as well as new offences for radicalising children.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has already signalled that the NSN and Islamist extremist organisation Hizb-ut Tahrir could be listed under the new laws, but currently operated below the threshold for charges.

Experts who track neo-Nazis call the development a big blow for the NSN, but warn the group, which is not renouncing Nazism, is far from done.

The NSN is one of the most high-profile neo-Nazi groups in the world, training recruits in combat as they plot to deport people of colour from Australia and build closed “white communities”. It also has direct ties to designated terror groups overseas, and many of its members have been convicted or charged with violent assaults, including Sewell.

Burke told this masthead that, while the fight against bigotry never ends, “any day the neo-Nazis take a backward step is a good day”. They “will still try to find a way to spew hatred and we will keep deporting people and disbanding organisations that hate Australia,” he said.

Sewell and his neo-Nazis have been seeking to rebrand of late as “everyday Australians” as they move to form a political party called “White Australia” and co-ordinate the national anti-immigration rallies.

But online their rhetoric has also been escalating – three Nazis have been charged by the Australian Federal Police in recent weeks over threats to politicians, and Sewell has spoken of his plans for revenge and violent race war in livestreams with extremists overseas.

The NSN said the decision on Tuesday meant that its White Australia political arm, which Sewell had bragged had already attracted more than the required membership numbers to register as a party, would also be disbanded.

“To mitigate the risk of individuals being arrested and charged under these new Draconian laws, we are shutting down all operations,” NSN leaders told members. “Under the proposed legislation, it is likely that it will be illegal for former members to rebrand and continue the organisations’ activities”, they said, citing a similar move used to disband neo-Nazi groups in the United Kingdom.

Neo-Nazis in the NSN decried the proposed laws online, while key figures in the group urged followers to “trust the plan … hold the line and don’t panic”, as they discussed plans for a new replacement organisation that could continue under the guise of a political party, as other neo-Nazi groups have done overseas.

“The decision will be hard for some to accept,” neo-Nazi leaders told their recruits. “However this is simply the end of one chapter. Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.”

Each state chapter would have a “final meeting” to disband in person at the weekend, they wrote, where “instructions will be given regarding the handling of memorabilia and membership material”. By midnight on Sunday, “all groups, pages and social media of the organisation will be taken down”.

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In a public statement posted to social media shortly after telling NSN members of the decision, Sewell and his leadership said the new laws would allow the government to disband any organisation that has performed Nazi salutes in the past, and called it the death of political freedom. They signed off “Blood and honour”, a slogan of the Hitler Youth.

The NSN had not yet applied to register its planned federal political party, or state parties – seen as a move to exploit loopholes in hate speech laws, including a coming crackdown in NSW after the group’s rally outside state parliament.

The Australian Electoral Commission has very limited grounds to knock back such an application, given it must stay apolitical.

Experts say the group appears to be planning to continue its “active club” model, where members train in boxing at home gyms and go on group hikes, but without their black shirts uniform.

Far-right researcher Dr Kaz Ross said the new laws had made it inevitable that the NSN would disband officially, but its “solid core of membership will be undeterred”.

“I think there is now a heightened threat of violence”, perhaps in particular from the group’s associates if not its core members, she said.

Recent stunts by the NSN, including ambushing politicians on the federal election trail and secretly running the national anti-immigration rallies March for Australia, have been revealed by this masthead as a co-ordinated neo-Nazi push to funnel more recruits (and money) into their extreme ideologies. The NSN is now aggressively recruiting teenagers through social media propaganda, with the help of the close friend of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate.

Mike Burgess, chief of Australia’s spy agency ASIO, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday afternoon that he had long flagged concerns over the activities of both the NSN and Hizb-ut Tahrir. Both groups used an “insidious strategy”, he said, to stay just “on the right side of the law as the laws currently are” but he warned they were “driving permission for violence in our society” and should be outlawed.

ASIO had thought about what would happen if such laws pushed the groups “underground”, Burgess added. “Of course, individuals don’t cease to exist. They’re still there in society.”

He said his agency was prepared for such a scenario and would continue to surveil those doing harm.

Ross said she was “deeply concerned” about the next anti-immigration march planned for Australia Day later this month, given the NSN’s wild success in infiltrating such protests so far.

Coalition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam, described the disbandment as “a welcome development. Groups whose operating model is to espouse racism and antisemitism should have no place in Australia.”

But he wanted the Albanese government to clarify if dissolving the group would make it harder to prosecute individuals for spreading hate.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/trust-the-plan-australia-s-biggest-nazi-group-to-disband-to-escape-jail-ahead-of-crackdown-20260113-p5ntqc.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcgxHUCguds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkr0fA_YNnc

>>23978158

>>23996350

>>24109990

>>24114633

Greens hold the cards to pass hate speech bill as Ley walks away

Paul Sakkal - January 15, 2026

Australia’s response to its worst terror attack could collapse after the Opposition Leader Sussan Ley rejected the government’s anti-vilification laws and the Greens complained the proposed hate speech crackdown could crimp the pro-Palestinian protest movement.

Any goodwill between the major parties appeared to evaporate on Thursday when Ley declared Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s reforms to counter antisemitism were nearly unsalvageable, effectively killing off the chance of a bipartisan moment before Ley’s shadow cabinet debated the bill.

The opposition had for weeks called on Labor to adopt in full a report from the nation’s envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, which included a proposal for anti-vilification laws.

But a broad range of civil rights groups, legal experts, and transparency advocates have criticised the bill, claiming it was too rushed, too broad, and might have a chilling effect on public discussion about issues such as terrorism and migration that might offend certain racial groups.

Albanese has scheduled a two-day parliamentary session to pass the laws next week and Labor appears most likely to try to pass the bill with the support of the Greens, who do not support the current draft but could shift if the government agreed to extend anti-vilification protections to disabled people, people of other faiths and the LGTBQ community.

“It is extraordinary that they are now saying it is being rushed when they were demanding, demanding and the front pages of newspapers were demanding that it be done prior to Christmas,” Albanese said in Queensland, hours after Ley criticised his handling of the antisemitism crackdown.

Ley said she would go to parliament next week and put forward a separate package of proposals because Labor’s attempt was confused.

“Now, the opposition will continue to scrutinise this legislation carefully, but from what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable,” she told reporters in Melbourne.

After MPs raised concerns about Ley suggesting she might introduce her own legislation next week, she scheduled a party room meeting for all MPs on Friday afternoon.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim, a close associate of the prime minister, said the major parties must unite in the national interest, and Labor needed to accept a Coalition request to get rid of a proposed religious text exemption in the draft law.

“If this all falls over, it means we’re sending a signal to the world that we just had the worst terror attack in our history and we can’t decide what to do about it,” he told this masthead.

Another Jewish community figure, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip, said it would be the “ultimate travesty” if the Greens, a party the Jewish community has at times accused of fuelling antisemitism, became kingmakers.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi said her party would not back the bill in its current form. The minor party wants the anti-vilification laws, which are being rushed into parliament chiefly to target Islamic hate preachers, to extend protections to different minority groups. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry also supports this.

Faruqi aired concerns that Labor wanted to curb the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which uses chants such as “globalise the intifada” and “river to the sea”. There have been debates about whether these slogans encourage violence.

“Antisemitism is something that needs to be addressed at the roots and the crux of it,” Faruqi said, adding that all forms of hatred needed to be confronted at the same time as protecting “legitimate criticisms of nation states [and] the protest movement”.

Labor backbenchers told ministers in a caucus meeting on Monday that they wanted the laws expanded to protect a broader range of minorities. There is consideration inside Labor on creating a Senate inquiry in coming weeks to examine the broadening of the anti-vilification laws. But Greens sources said the party was now in a powerful bargaining position given Ley had been so scathing about the bill, meaning the minor party would be likely to accept nothing less than a move to expand anti-vilification protections in the current bill.

Civil liberties advocates have argued the bill’s language – including prohibitions on “promoting hatred” or conduct that might cause “fear or intimidation” – is too broad and risks criminalising mainstream political speech and social media posts, sparking concern inside the Coalition.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/greens-to-withhold-support-for-hate-speech-bill-20260115-p5nua9.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v6pp9Mqbd4

>>23978158

>>23996350

>>24109990

>>24114633

>>24124522

‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good’: Jewish groups urge Ley to back bill

Nick Newling - January 15, 2026

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The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has urged the Coalition to pass Labor’s antisemitism reforms drafted after the Bondi attack, fearing that Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s objections could “allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good”.

The call for unity from a prominent Jewish organisation echoes comments by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning, who told ABC Radio he was “stunned” by the Coalition’s resistance to the proposal after almost a month of demands from the opposition that parliament be recalled.

Support for the bill from the Coalition now seems doomed, after Ley this morning said she had “extremely serious concerns” about the suite of hate speech measures.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry on Thursday issued a statement urging the Coalition to work to pass the bill, which Ley described as “unsalvageable”.

“By all means, seek to amend the bill to remove its shortcomings, but a wholesale rejection of the bill would not at all be warranted. In our view, the defeat of the bill would be a retrograde step,” co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said.

“The entire history of legislative reform concerning this issue has been one of incremental steps towards achieving the effective proscription of speech that deliberately promotes hatred of people based on their race, nationality or ethnic origin. The current bill would represent a significant further step towards that destination, even if it does not completely get us there”.

The government’s omnibus antisemitism laws – which, among a number of measures, would crack down on “hate preachers”, increase penalties for hate speech, and establish a national gun buy-back scheme – will require the support of either the Coalition or the Greens to pass. The laws were drafted in the weeks after the attack and will be debated during a snap recall of parliament next Monday and Tuesday.

Despite weeks of clamouring for early debate, the federal Coalition argued the bill was rushed without a decent period of scrutiny. Key opposition figures have argued against any further gun reforms, said racial vilification laws would have free-speech implications, and fought against perceived restrictions on freedom of expression and religion.

Senior Jewish figures, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect future negotiations on behalf of their community, said there was time for the legislation to be slowly and methodically considered given the complexity and potential unintended consequences of its swift passage.

Rabbi Nochum Schapiro, former president of the Rabbinical Council of NSW, said the legislation needed a considered debate, but immediate action needed to be taken to stop pro-Palestinian protests and ban the use of chants such as “globalise the intifada”, “from the river to the sea” and “death to the IDF”.

“I’m not an expert on how much time [the legislation] needs, but it needs to have honest discussion, debate, non-politicised,” Shapiro said. “The wider bill needs to have full clarity of what the implications and repercussions of criticism would be.”

(continued)

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The proposed federal hate speech laws do not canvas the prohibition of public marches and demonstrations, which fall under state laws.

Bureaucrats from the attorney-general’s office told the parliamentary inquiry that it would be up to the courts to determine if an individual phrase was hate speech under the new laws.

Albanese on Thursday morning said it was “somewhat stunning, frankly” that the Coalition was backing away from the legislation after weeks of demands that the laws be debated and passed urgently. The prime minister referenced comments from Ley in the days after the attack in which she demanded parliament be recalled before Christmas, allowing only a few days for legislation to be drafted and distributed for consultation.

“You can’t have it both ways. And it just seems to me, people who were watching the events since December 14 would have seen politics being played by the Coalition. They’re still playing politics, and I’m just stunned that they are saying they will vote against legislation, a number of their members [will], without even looking at it,” Albanese told ABC Radio.

During a press conference on Thursday morning, Ley said she had “extremely serious concerns about the government’s legislation”, suggesting the government adopt the opposition’s proposed changes.

“The legislation does not address the real issues that gave rise to the Bondi attack. It doesn’t address Islamic extremism. It doesn’t address ISIS influence, and it doesn’t address the rise of antisemitism and the associated terrorist threat in Australia,” Ley said.

“From what we have seen so far, it looks pretty unsalvageable. As it stands, the government’s proposal is half-baked, and Australians deserve far better.”

The quoting of religious texts has been written into the bill as a legitimate defence in the new hate speech offences, and serves as a legal stopgap to the explicit constitutional right to freedom of religious expression.

Questioned about the constitutional implications, Ley said: “The government has presented a bill with a carefully planned excuse for hate preachers. I think they have opportunities to get around that.”

Albanese said he had met repeatedly with both Ley and Greens leader Larissa Waters to discuss the legislation, and was open to amendments. He said no amendments had been proposed to him so far.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-stunned-as-coalition-backs-away-from-hate-speech-laws-20260115-p5nu6n.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxXED4yJ9To

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSxJPLunYRU

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Protesters chant ‘intifada’ at first post-attack rally at Sydney Town Hall

LACHLAN LEEMING - 16 January 2026

An unprecedented police presence including more than 100 officers has watched over the first major pro-Palestine protest to descend on Sydney’s streets following the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Chants of “Long live the intifada” and “Long live the resistance” rang out at Sydney’s Town Hall on Friday afternoon, when more than 300 people rallied against new laws passed by the state government banning protests for up to three months in the wake of the designated terrorist attack.

At least one man, holding a sign reading “Blame Hamas”, was detained by police at the start of the rally, before being released without charge.

Police confirmed three other people were spoken to for similar “breach of the peace” incidents before moving on from the scene.

Protesters held up signs including one reading “Globalise the intifada”, a phrase at the centre of a state parliamentary inquiry that is analysing whether hateful slogans should be banned from being chanted in public.

Protesters also railed against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s planned visit to Australia and federal laws tackling anti-Semitism, which are due to be debated next week in Canberra.

Jepke Goutsmit, from activist group Jews Against the Occupation ’48, told the crowd Mr Herzog’s invitation was “an act of buckling into Zionist pressure” and that NSW Premier Chris Minns was “trying to make NSW a police state with extraordinary haste”.

“There is absolutely no link between the free Palestine movement and the Bondi massacre – let it be said again,” Ms Goutsmit shouted at the crowd, which was met with a rapturous applause.

The new state protest laws, which can be applied for two weeks at a time for a maximum of three months, were first enacted by NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon on Christmas Eve and remain in place until next week unless extended again.

The Friday rally was the first major event since the Bondi terror attack, after a smaller protest against US intervention in Venezuela at the same location last week.

It’s understood the protest was organised by the Stop War on Palestine group, but promotional material shared online beforehand showed it was backed by other movements including the Palestine Action Group, the Hizb ut-Tahrir-linked Stand for Palestine, Labor Friends of Palestine and the Greens.

The Australian arm of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamist group, on Thursday launched an extraordinary attack on ASIO director-general Mike Burgess in which the group accused the national security chief of spreading “lies and disinformation”.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, which is facing a potential ban under new federal hate speech laws to be voted on next week, wrote a wide-ranging open letter to Mr Burgess on Thursday, accusing him of acting as a “propaganda mouthpiece for those seeking to demonise Islam and Muslims”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/protesters-chant-intifada-at-first-postattack-rally-at-sydney-town-hall/news-story/7eda1d60d93046b6006d981ca7c488ce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faY3r5sEvwA

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Albanese’s big hate speech bill in jeopardy as bishops unite with imams to oppose it

Paul Sakkal - January 16, 2026

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s closest religious adviser has thrown his weight behind growing demands to halt Labor’s hate speech reforms, in a last-minute intervention in the high-stakes dispute over how Australia should curb antisemitism after the Bondi massacre.

Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher – whom Albanese, a Catholic, meets regularly – on Friday co-signed a letter to Albanese with top Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Scientology leaders asking that he shelve the anti-vilification laws because they might crimp religious expression.

“A rushed legislative process of this nature undermines confidence, increases the risk of unintended consequences, and does not assist community unity or social cohesion,” the letter said.

The letter’s sentiment mirrored that of civil liberties groups, transparency advocates and legal experts. The religious leaders’ position revealed on Friday has reduced the anxiety of Coalition MPs worried they would appear unco-operative by opposing Albanese.

After Opposition Leader Sussan Ley described an emergency bill on anti-vilification and gun restrictions as nearly unsalvageable on Thursday, Albanese and his top lieutenants lined up to savage her on Friday.

“I think what is becoming increasingly clear is that it is Ms Ley’s leadership which is unsalvageable,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

Earlier, Albanese accused Ley of “performative conduct” after the killing of more than a dozen Jewish people in Sydney on December 14. “I haven’t been shouting, I haven’t been banging lecterns. I haven’t been engaged in performative conduct,” Albanese said, referring to Ley.

The increasingly personal debate is fuelled by anxieties that the whole emergency bill is in jeopardy.

The bill takes in a gun buyback, powers to ban hate groups, visa tightening, and a contentious new offence for promoting hatred that various civil society groups believe will hurt free speech.

Albanese and Wong’s sharp attacks on Ley and her motives contrasts with what senior government sources said was their plan to keep exploring a deal with the Coalition.

Top advisers to the prime minister were as late as Thursday asking the opposition in private which elements of the sprawling Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026 they could support, indicating an openness to dropping the most controversial elements in the interests of national unity.

Albanese’s alternative is to work with the Greens, who want proposed anti-vilification laws to be broadened from protecting just racial hatred, designed to protect Jews after Bondi, to encompass LGBTQ and religious protections.

Such a move would trigger an even more complex set of trade-offs, and the same government sources, not willing to divulge high-level thinking on the record, said the cabinet was reluctant to expand protections, given how complex and wide-ranging the draft bill already was.

Complicating matters further is the deep feeling in the Jewish community, and the security establishment, that the Greens should not be kingmakers, given the bipartisan criticism that they contributed to the rise in antisemitism.

But Albanese is determined to get a deal done when parliament returns early for a special two-day sitting next week, his confidantes said, so drastically narrowing the bill to win over the Coalition or broadening it to secure Greens would be contemplated.

Failure to win support for his overhaul would leave Albanese exposed after a difficult summer in which he was pressured to back down on a royal commission.

(continued)

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The opposition’s sharp turn against the bill this week has again swung a spotlight on Ley’s tenuous leadership and her pattern of following the calls of a group of rebellious right-wing backbenchers.

A backbencher said on Friday afternoon that they were annoyed Ley did not attend a briefing on the laws to explain what MPs felt was her clumsy and confusing response.

Ley repeated her criticisms of the proposed laws on Friday, saying she would put forward her own crackdown on hate preachers next week that did not include lowering thresholds for hate speech.

“If Penny Wong was as passionate about eradicating antisemitism and dealing with radical Islamic extremism as she seems to be about me, then maybe the country would be in a better place,” Ley told reporters.

Albanese has been accused of playing political games from the moment he revealed he would put gun restrictions and unrelated anti-vilification measures into the same bill, making it difficult for Nationals, who oppose the gun changes, to back the package of reforms.

Jewish leaders feel cut out by Albanese. In private, they say the prime minister consults mostly with Peter Wertheim, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, who is widely respected, at the exclusion of others, before presenting the judgments of his old ally as the view of the entire community when other Jewish leaders have different concerns about the bill.

A major party deal would require both Ley and Albanese to climb down from their respective positions, a prospect which appears dim after a summer of acrimony.

One senior Labor MP said, “We’re all squeezed here, including the Greens.” Another two Labor MPs said it was obviously unreasonable to consider such momentous laws in one week, but one of the MPs said the Bondi killings necessitated such haste.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/christians-and-muslim-leaders-unite-against-bondi-hate-speech-laws-20260116-p5nukn.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peLOTb6PYwk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbWFPwILw2E

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Labor backs down on post-Bondi changes as political support collapses

Mike Foley and Nick Newling - January 17, 2026

The Albanese government has been forced into a major backdown in its response to the Bondi attack, declaring it will now split its legislation in two and bring separate bills for gun laws and hate speech, as political support for its original reform package collapsed on Saturday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that the most contentious element of the original bill, provisions to stamp out antisemitism with new anti-vilification laws, did not have enough support in the Senate.

That is because earlier in the day, in a blow to the government’s political fortunes, the Greens announced they would join the Coalition in opposing Labor’s original omnibus bill, which included laws to tackle firearms, hate speech, migration issues and racial vilification.

“We will only proceed with measures that have the support of the parliament,” Albanese said on Saturday afternoon.

The government has recalled parliament to sit from Monday, and in the Senate it needs the support of either the Liberals or the Greens to enact its changes.

Labor’s original bill included new powers to set up a national gun buyback, toughen gun importation rules, ban hate groups and changes to migration law that would allow the immigration minister to refuse or cancel visas if a person had associated with hate groups or made hateful comments. These elements will be retained in the two bills to be brought to parliament from Monday.

However, the government has ditched contentious anti-vilification provisions, which included a new offence for promoting hatred that various civil society groups warned would curtail free speech.

The prime minister said the Greens had engaged in good faith with the government, after leader Larissa Waters confirmed that her party would back only the gun reforms, which are now expected to pass parliament next week. Waters said the Greens would not support the hate speech and racial vilification measures.

However, Albanese said the federal opposition had been hypocritical in its response to date, given it had urged that parliament be recalled to deliver reform and then rejected his bill. He demanded Opposition Leader Sussan Ley confirm her position on the new bills.

“They have up to this point, of course, called for parliament to be recalled and then opposed [the bill]. When we did it, they called for hate speech laws. When they’ve seen them, they’re now against them,” he said.

Ley criticised Albanese for recanting on his previous claim that the changes could not be adjusted and criticised the parliamentary deadline for dealing with them, which she said prevented community voices from being heard.

“He has decided to split what he told Australians was an un-splittable bill, including when directly asked by the opposition leader face-to-face,” a spokesman for Ley said in a statement.

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A government source said it was in negotiations with the Greens and the opposition on the new, truncated hate speech bill.

Waters said on Saturday that there was not enough time to analyse and negotiate the omnibus bill.

“It may be simpler to start afresh with a bill that aims to protect everyone from hatred and discrimination,” she said.

The Greens want Labor’s proposed anti-vilification laws to be broadened from protecting just racial hatred – designed to protect Jews after Bondi – to encompass LGBTQ and religious protections.

Ley all but ended the prospects of the Coalition supporting bill when she said on Thursday that the changes were nearly unsalvageable, even before her shadow cabinet debated it.

The standalone gun bill presents a new challenge for the opposition. Nationals leader David Littleproud has campaigned against firearm reform, labelling it a distraction from tackling antisemitism.

Civil rights groups, legal experts and transparency advocates have criticised the original bill and argued it had been rushed, was too broad, and could have restricted public debate on issues that could offend racial groups, such as terrorism and migration.

The Greens are also concerned that Labor wanted to curb the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which uses chants such as “Globalise the intifada” and “River to the sea”. There have been debates about whether these slogans encourage violence.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim, a close associate of the prime minister, said last week that the major parties must unite in the national interest and that Labor needed to accept a Coalition request to get rid of a proposed religious text exemption in the draft law.

“If this all falls over, it means we’re sending a signal to the world that we just had the worst terror attack in our history and we can’t decide what to do about it,” he said.

However, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher – whom Albanese, a Catholic, meets regularly – on Friday co-signed a letter to Albanese with top Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and Scientology leaders asking him to shelve the anti-vilification laws because they could crimp religious expression.

“A rushed legislative process of this nature undermines confidence, increases the risk of unintended consequences, and does not assist community unity or social cohesion,” the letter said.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/greens-oppose-labor-s-hate-speech-laws-as-support-for-overhaul-collapses-20260117-p5nuqa.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjFvRAvvMfQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMmRmTKb6ZI

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PM dumps hate speech laws, tries to salvage anti-Semitism laws

RICHARD FERGUSON - January 17, 2026

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Anthony Albanese has dumped plans to criminalise racist hate speech for now, as he tries to salvage at least some of his anti-Semitism laws.

The Prime Minister said he could not guarantee the eradication of anti-Semitism without the hate speech laws that top Jewish bodies have called for, and said it was up to the Coalition to explain why it had blocked them.

Parliament will still sit on Tuesday to vote on separate bills as part of the legislative response to the Bondi terror attack.

One bill will ban hate groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir and the neo-Nazis, as well give the Home Affairs Minister power to reject the visas of foreign anti-Semites.

The other bill will institute Labor’s $1 billion gun buyback scheme.

But the Prime Minister conceded his plans to criminalise the incitement of racial hatred did not have the support of parliament and he would not bring a bill on that to MPs next week.

Mr Albanese was forced to split his omnibus anti-Semitism bill after the Greens on Saturday said it would only support the gun element of the law, but not the hate speech provisions.

“We do not have a majority in the Senate … that is the parliament Australians voted for,” he said in Canberra.

“It’s clear what (the Coalition) is against.

“It’s up to others to justify why we are not able to proceed (with hate speech laws).”

A spokesman for Sussan Ley said that the Opposition Leader’s statement on Thursday that the bill was “unsalvageable” was clearly the view shared by “a majority of the Parliament”.

“The Prime Minister never provided the Opposition with an opportunity to provide input into the design of this legislation and did not consult us prior to finalising it,” the spokesman said.

“This afternoon, the Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Prime Minister in good faith, imploring him as the leader of our country to outline a pathway forward.”

Greens leader Larissa Waters on Saturday declared that her party was only willing to back the Prime Minister’s $1 billion gun buyback scheme, but they would not support hate speech protections unless they were extended to all religions outside Judaism including Islam.

The Australian revealed on Friday that the Greens had discovered more issues with the omnibus bill than even had the previous day, when they said the anti-Semitic Hanukkah massacre could have happened to powerful women or other minority groups.

The Greens are willing to work with the government to pass gun laws next week, but the rest of the omnibus bill needs a huge amount of work.

“With every hour that passes, more concerns are raised by legal experts, faith groups and the community about the Omnibus bill. This is complex legislation, with a lot of massive pitfalls and omissions, and the process to fix it can’t be rushed,” Senator Waters said in a statement.

“We are willing to sit down with the government to find a way forward, but it’s clear that the amount of negotiations and legal analysis required to produce a good outcome can’t be done in the extremely tight timeframe the government has created. It may be simpler to start afresh with a bill that aims to protect everyone from hatred and discrimination.

“We need to keep all people in the community safe from discrimination and hatred, and good laws don’t come from rushed work.”

Labor’s last hope had been that the parliament’s powerful intelligence committee could suggest changes that would sway a highly sceptical Coalition.

The Australian reported on Saturday that the intelligence committee would make a last-ditch effort to craft changes to Anthony Albanese’s anti-Semitism laws that could satisfy a sceptical Coalition.

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The Liberals’ most senior Jewish MP challenged his colleagues on what they would say if there was another Bondi-style attack after the party rejected the legislation.

The Prime Minister had been adamant he would stare down the ­Coalition, religious leaders and some Jewish groups and pass his hate speech and gun reform laws on Tuesday, with Labor MPs ­expecting the Greens to back down on their more radical ­demands and support the bill.

At a Friday meeting of Liberal MPs, opposition frontbencher ­Julian Leeser warned the party was at risk of “ceding the moral high ground” if it didn’t ensure the legislation was passed.

Several Coalition MPs present at the meeting said Mr Leeser ­acknowledged there were deep flaws in the bill and the most ideal outcome would be for more time to drastically change the reforms and come to an agreement with Labor. However, he urged colleagues to consider what would happen if the Coalition failed to pass the laws and another terror attack targeting Jews occurred.

“He said that we would cede the moral high ground and that if a further event happened, Labor would say ‘we tried to fix this and the Liberals didn’t let us’,” one MP said.

Jewish groups have differing views on the legislation, with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry wanting it passed next week and groups such as the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council wanting a short delay.

Mr Albanese’s closest spiritual adviser, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher, joined other Christian bishops and Muslim imams in rejecting the current proposed laws, accusing Labor of breaking a pre-election promise if the bill goes ahead and imploring the Prime Minister to reject dealing with the Greens.

As Mr Albanese had urged parliament to unite next week and provide an immediate response to the anti-Semitic Bondi terror attack, he said he did not control the Senate and would not rule out working with the Greens.

“We don’t have a majority in the Senate, and we’ll engage ­respectfully with people in the parliament … both members of the House of Representatives and the Senate,” he said in Brisbane.

“At the moment … this is like trying to grab smoke, trying to get an arrangement with the ­Coalition. The parliament controls its own destiny … I want legislation to be introduced that is going to be passed.”

The intelligence and security committee has received more than 7000 submissions on the government’s hate speech and gun reform bill, in a fresh challenge to Labor’s push to fast-track the legislation.

While only 113 of the submissions were posted on the Parliamentary Joint Commission on Intelligence and Security’s website by mid-afternoon on Friday, the committee’s secretariat has warned members of the avalanche of new submissions lodged by stakeholders and members of the public by its Thursday 4pm deadline. Deputy chair Phil Thompson said the submissions were overwhelmingly opposed to the bill in its current form, although the claim could not be independently verified.

“The majority of the submissions I have read thus far do not support this bill in its entirety, and people are particularly concerned over the creeping impact of the government’s proposed changes on freedom of speech,” Mr Thompson said.

A Labor member of the committee said many of the last-minute submissions appeared to be the result of lobbying by One Nation and conservative group Advance.

Archbishop Fisher, along with other faith leaders, on Friday sent a letter to Mr Albanese, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Attorney-General Michelle Rowland expressing “alarm” at a deal with the minor party, and calling for the current hate speech legislation to be radically reformed.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/coalition-of-faith-leaders-urge-pm-to-delay-hate-speech-laws-rule-out-greens-deal/news-story/4adc2e7d4f494df11715a23004857a5e?amp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-PIbnpenc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxzsy7O43I