The voting behaviour of senators on February 6 was bizarre to say the least. Labor’s Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2025 passed both houses in what can only be described as a whirlwind. The passing of the bill has left conservatives scratching their heads as a mixed bag of conservative senators voted ‘no’, one abstained, and another well-regarded conservative upset his fans by voting ‘yes’.
Explaining the bill, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus wrote in his media release:
‘The Albanese government has today delivered landmark reform to strengthen hate speech laws.
No Australian should be targeted because of who they are or what they believe.
This Bill delivers the toughest laws Australia has ever had against hate crimes.’
Conservatives are scratching their heads because the government has done what Labor governments love to do. Nothing. They make laws to address a problem while taking no action to address the problem.
If someone commits a crime, then they ought to be arrested for committing that crime.
If someone tries to burn down a synagogue, then they should be arrested for attempting to commit an act of arson or terrorism.
If someone threatens to harm or kill someone else, then the perpetrator should be arrested for assault.
If someone damages a publicly funded statue honouring our history or our veterans, then the perpetrator should be arrested for vandalism and made to pay for the damage they caused, and so on.
What we need is action, not more words.
Instead of coming down hard on terrorists, we’ve seen throughout the Western world a two-tiered response to criminal activity. In Melbourne, for example, those protesting the draconian pandemic lockdowns were crash-tackled and imprisoned, while those allegedly waving terrorist flags got off scot-free.
To anyone who has witnessed these events, it is plainly obvious what is happening.
Only in the United States have we seen a leader who walks the talk. For all the lefties who are sooking now, Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do after he was elected. And he’s not messing about.
That’s why Trump won the US election on every possible measure. And that’s what we need here to end antisemitism, terrorism, and vandalism against our society and culture.
Instead, the Albanese government introduced yet another law. Instead of tough action, they’ve created laws that seem to deal with everything else other than antisemitism, terrorism, and vandalism.
In outlining what the Hate Crime Bill will do, Dreyfus wrote:
The Bill targets the most serious forms of harmful hate speech, namely advocating and threatening the use of force or violence against a group or member of a group or against a place of worship.
These offences will protect groups, or members of groups, distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, national or ethnic origin or political opinion.
What nonsense. This bill can’t arrest anybody, and it can’t physically protect anybody. It is an instrument that, unless wielded, means nothing. We already have laws that aren’t being used, so what’s the point of this law?
Many conservatives see this bill as the ultimate Uniparty cop-out that means nothing and does nothing other than potentially take away our freedoms.
The final protection, ‘political opinion’, is a complete joke. I doubt that the Melbourne man banned from a pub for wearing a MAGA hat will get due recompense. Not only was his hat deemed offensive, but now the man himself has been banned by another of the business’ venues simply for being the bloke who wore a MAGA hat. Where’s the justice in that?
Nor the Australian Jewish Association, that was not allowed to hire a venue because the association was concerned the topic, How to Combat Anti-Semitism and Defend Western Civilisation, might be ‘seen as “controversial or insensitive” to stakeholders and players’.
Never mind that antisemitism and terrorism are the real controversial issues that are not being addressed by our weak political leaders.
Returning to what happened in Canberra, Senators Alex Antic, Ralph Babet, and Gerard Rennick voted against the bill.
Senator Antic wrote that the bill was rushed through ‘in just one hour … without proper consultation’. He went on to say:
‘The prospect of this Bill simply adding more strings to the bows of those who seek to weaponise lawfare as part of their political activism… Let’s hope that I am wrong, and that all this new law will do is protect people from violence.’
Similarly, Senator Babet wrote:
‘The “hate crimes” bill just passed the Senate after only an hour of debate. It’s vague, poorly designed, and wide open for abuse by the radical left to criminally target those they disagree with.’
While three other Senators voted no (including David Pocock), many conservatives were ropeable about Senator Matt Canavan voting yes, despite unsuccessfully calling for an amendment to the terms ‘force’ to be defined as ‘physical force’ and ‘violence’ to be defined as ‘physical violence’.
Canavan has copped expletive-laden abuse from his followers online ranging from disillusionment to complete abandonment.
Even One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts has copped his share of abuse online for abstaining, despite Pauline Hanson suggesting that One Nation didn’t want to be part of such an anti-freedom ‘sham vote’.
None of this seemed to cut it, with one person commenting on One Nation’s Facebook page:
‘Shame on ONP for not voting against the latest Hate Speech Bill in parliament. I have been a proud and loud supporter for years and was on the verge of joining. However after this stunt forget it, you no longer have my support.’
Senator Rennick was less equivocal:
‘Yet again the government passes laws to censor you.’
While Peter Dutton has proven himself to be best placed to fix broken laws like those that enabled convicted criminals to be released onto our streets (while Airbus Albo was away and his team went cap in hand to Mr Dutton for guidance on fixing the laws), there is a general view among conservatives that pushing the hate crimes bill through is yet another act of the Uniparty.
While I will keep saying it, if you don’t vote for the Coalition, you will get another Labor government. Nobody can afford three more years of these budget wreckers.
But I must admit that I, too, have become disillusioned by the mounting evidence for the Uniparty concept. Instead of acting, they keep talking. Instead of standing up for us, they are going with the flow. All of this will ensure Labor gets back into power in a few weeks’ time, and now they are armed with a new law that can be used against dissenting voices.
The weaponisation of laws in the absence of strong leadership is what we tend to get. If the Albanese government had to tighten up the laws to get the outcome they desired, then that is another matter. Instead, they pass legislation in Parliament House while youth crime, domestic terrorism, antisemitism, costly protests, and endless attacks on our freedoms are perpetrated every day with bugger all action taken by the authorities.
If the Coalition had only called out the inaction of the authorities and voted against this political overreach, then we could have had a debate about how to use the existing laws to end the nonsense.
Instead, we have more rules that will be weaponised against those of us who disagree. (I was going to say ‘fight’ but that would probably be illegal under this bill once it becomes law.)
In the meantime, the Uniparty does nothing to end antisemitism and all the other activities that are already crimes under our existing laws. Any wonder conservatives are disillusioned with the major parties.
Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is a political scientist and political commentator. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILTA), and a Member of the Royal Society of NSW. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Chairman of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter of CILTA, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and was appointed to the College of Experts at the Australian Research Council in 2022. All opinions in this article are the author’s own and are not intended to reflect the views of any other person or organisation.