Throughout Christmas, in the aftermath of the Bondi shooting horror which left 15 innocent people dead, federal Opposition leader Sussan Ley attacked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claiming he lacked the leadership to address antisemitism in Australia and even blaming him for failing to tackle rising antisemitism in the lead up to Bondi.

And yet the federal government's proposed laws to address race hate, increasing criminalisation of hate and banning racist organisations has now been rejected by Ley and her party, ignoring Jewish leaders who supported the laws.

The PM needed support for the laws, but Ley claimed the law didn't tackle the problem, didn't name 'radical Islam' and was 'unsalvageable'. The Liberals have long opposed section 18(c) of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 that prohibits racial vilification or hate speech preferring to support 'free speech', and it was unlikely they would ever strengthen race hate laws, criminalising race hate even, in Australia.

"While Ms Ley criticised the proposed laws for not clearly capturing certain phrases, many of her colleagues argued the changes go too far in limiting free speech", it was reported.

It was surprising the Greens, who are against racism, rejected the laws citing free speech and civil liberties, as well as the need to prohibit all forms of racial and religious hatred.

Aboriginal people have long experienced and borne the brunt of race hate and violence in Australia but weren't consulted in the chorus of voices drowning out the laws, demonstrating how the defeat for a Voice to parliament has real consequences for Aboriginal lives, frequently impacted by racism and hate.

Some 25 years ago in 2000 I researched racist organisations in Australia; this included the One Nation party whose members made numerous racist statements against Aboriginal people. Neo Nazi and racist organisations on the right were even then regarded as a serious threat by Australian authorities and yet were completely legal, and it's evident from the attack on Camp Sovereignty by Neo-Nazi groups that the problem has not abated and is alive and well today.

Numerous acts of racist violence and hate against Aboriginal people were also documented by the Australian Human Rights Commission in their National Inquiry into Racist Violence (1991). Commissioner Irene Moss reported that "Racist violence against Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders is endemic, nation-wide and very severe". Also, evidence to the Inquiry overwhelmingly demonstrated that racist attitudes and practices (both conscious and unconscious) pervade our institutions.The UN Convention on the Elimination of Race Discrimination (UNCERD) requires nation states - including Australia - to prohibit race hate and racist organisations. Under Article 4, states must:

(a) Declare an offence punishable by law all dissemination of ideas based on racial superiority and hatred, incitement to racial discrimination, as well as acts of violence or incitement to such acts against any group of persons of another colour or ethnic origin, an also the provision of any assistance to racist activities, including the financing thereof;

(b) Declare illegal and prohibit organizations, and also organized and all other propaganda activities, which promote and incite racial discrimination, and shall recognise participation in such organizations and activities as an offence punishable by law;

(c) Not permit public authorities or public institutions, national or local, to promote or incite racial discrimination.

Unfortunately, the government only allowed two days for the public to comment on the Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill, 2026, which proposed a new federal offence making it illegal to publicly promote or incite racial hatred where the conduct would cause a reasonable person to feel intimidated, harassed or fear violence. It also provided for race hate organisations to be listed and criminalised, and for visas to be cancelled for people engaging in race hate conduct or associating with such bodies.

As Professor Luke McNamara noted, the law significantly proposed to criminalise the incitement of racial hatred. For more than 30 years Australia has treated racist hate speech as a matter for civil law. Criminal law only applies to hate speech that urges or threatens violence.

Arguably, the proposed law was consistent with and implementing Article 4 of the UNCERD which is a binding international treaty obligation and formed in the aftermath of Nazism and genocide against millions of Jewish people.

I wonder, will the Royal Commission the federal government has established even consider UNCERD as it surely should?

In Australia's last review before the UN Committee on Race Discrimination, in 2018, it was noted that Australia still hadn't removed a reservation to Article 4(a) and needed to address this and ensure victims of race hate are protected.

The Committee also expressed concerns that racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, including in the public sphere, in political debates and in the media, was on the rise. The Committee also expresses concern that migrants, notably Arabs and Muslims, asylum seekers and refugees, as well as Africans and people of African descent, South Asians and Indigenous peoples, are particularly affected by racist hate speech and violence.

The overwhelming opposition to the proposed law, even from some sections of the left, was a missed opportunity to tackle race hate and ban racist organisations in Australia.

And if we're truly serious about addressing racist hate and violence in Australia, and learning from Bondi, we must start listening to people who've lived this experience, including Aboriginal people, who have pervasive long-standing experiences of hate in this country which continue to be largely ignored.

Dr Hannah McGlade is a Kurin Minang human rights expert and law academic.