Socialist Alliance opposes Labor’s Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill (Criminal and Migration Laws) 2026. People who want the right to oppose genocide, or to defend democratic rights more generally, should reject these laws.

The laws, which passed with the Liberals’ support on January 20, allow the minister for the Australian Federal Police to declare an organisation as a “hate crime group”, which would then criminalise membership and support for that group and the use of its symbols.

Judicial reviews of declarations will be limited because hearing first from a group before it is banned (procedural fairness) is not required.

The laws also mean the government can deny visas on as little as a suspicion that hate crimes will be carried out in the future.

The laws provide the Australian state with more means to police and imprison oppressed people, starting with those who face racism.

However, its big target is the Palestine solidarity movement. The ABC’s January 20 7.30 interview with Labor Attorney-General Michelle Rowland revealed this. Rowland was asked if a group “saying that Israel is engaged in genocide or condemning Israel, saying it shouldn’t exist and Jewish Australians feel harassed or intimidated, they can be banned for that reason?”

She replied: “If those criteria are satisfied, then that is the case.”

How? First, Professor Ben Saul, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, warned in his parliamentary committee submission that the use of terms like “advocate” in the “objects” of the law banning hate crime groups “are vague and overbroad and prone to arbitrary application and abuse”.

“Incitement,” he wrote, “is the........

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