Australia politics live: Labor to beef up anti-hate laws; Woodside boss in energy warning It was a late night for our reporter in Canberra Sarah Basford Canales after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, last night introduced amendments to the hate crime bill.
The government’s attempts to look tougher on the issue of antisemitism will be the focus of a lot of activity today after the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said last night that he would attempt to pass legislation setting minimum jail sentences of between one and six years for hate speech crimes.
He’ll likely also be challenged on the government’s decision to back the Coalition’s amendments on Labor’s hate crimes bill, to introduce mandatory sentencing for some terrorism offences and displaying hate symbols.
Government frontbencher Anika Wells was on the Today show earlier, defending Labor’s decision to go against its national platform, to accept the amendments on mandatory minimum sentencing from the Coalition.
Switching 20% of the continent’s coal-fired power stations to gas would slash emissions by 680m tonnes a year, equivalent to one and a half times Australia’s total annual net greenhouse gas emissions, she argues.
