Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Hansard source

Yes. I, and also on behalf of Senators David Pocock, Lambie, Payman, Thorpe and Tyrrell, move:

Omit all words after "That", substitute:

"(a) the Senate notes that:

(i) this bill includes complex legislative changes that make significant amendments to hate speech and migration laws,

(ii) independent senators have had the final text of the bill for less than 12 hours,

(iii) the Government only undertook very limited consultation on the exposure draft legislation, only provided three days for public submissions on the bill and a week for parliamentary consideration and public consultation,

(iv) time for parliamentary debate of this bill has been significantly curtailed with many senators not afforded an opportunity to speak on or ask questions about the bill on behalf of their communities,

(v) there is strong community support for combatting antisemitism and all forms of racism, hatred and violent extremism however, a broad range of experts, community leaders, organisations and members of the community have expressed serious concerns about the bill and have called for more time for it to be considered,

(vi) serious concerns have been expressed about potential unintended consequences and the bill's potential to impinge on legitimate freedom of expression, especially in the absence of a federal Human Rights Act,

(vii) serious concerns have been expressed about the failure to extend new proposed protections to other groups with protected attributes creating a two-tier system of protections and potentially putting further stress on social cohesion,

(viii) there is ambiguity and uncertainty about many of the definitions and provisions including serious matters like retrospectivity and inclusion of a 'good faith' defence, the introduction of recklessness-based fault elements and a reversal of the burden of proof,

(ix) the bill lacks procedural fairness safeguards, particularly in relation to changes to migration law, and

(x) to be successful in advancing towards the Government's worthy ambition of national unity, Australians and their representatives need a fair opportunity to be heard, to consider such significant legislative changes and the time and political will to develop and negotiate amendments in good faith while respecting parliamentary process; and

(b) the bill be referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 3 February