A place for Aussie memes.
Who demanded the govt make new laws? I don't know a single person who demanded such a thing, nor anyone who actually supports them after reading how incredibly vague and severe the legislation is
Certainly not a democratic process, the majority want this crap to fuck off
Liberals and nationals both mostly supported the bill too?
The Coalition was absolutely crying out for him to do something about the evils of antisemitism in the wake of Bondi. Absolutely hounding him to do a Royal Commission and to pass stronger laws.
Albo caved and did the Royal Commission, and they whinge about who the Commissioner is.
Albo brings forward the hate speech legislation, and they worry it might mean they can't be as openly racist anymore, so reject it. The Greens also reject it because of concerns it might protect zionists from fair criticism, and because whatever actual hate content gets blocked by it should also apply on non-racial grounds, like protecting LGBT+ folks.
So Albo amends it. Removes the worst parts of the hate speech laws, but keeps some stuff in. Liberals agree to pass it. Nationals refuse. Many Nationals officially resign from the shadow cabinet over this, leading to a situation where it looks like the Coalition may again break apart.
Liberals are in-fighting because some of them blame Suss Ley for having caused the Coalition to break apart. There's a strong faction in the Liberals who want to go down the strong culture war extreme-right route that worked for Trump in America, and the Nationals are more or less entirely made up of that same ideology. But even the majority of the Liberals' hard-right faction are not necessarily on board with that. They like destructive right-wing policy, but they like a sense of decorum about it that the New Right does not. Think more like Howard, and less like Dutton. And that faction wants to oust Ley as soon as possible, while the Old Right wants a slower more considered approach, possibly involving ousting Ley a few months before the next election so the new leader has time to establish themselves as leader, but not enough time to lose their honeymoon period with the public. But it looks as though a compromise between those two factions has been reached, where the leader of the Old Right will challenge Ley (who is from the third, Moderate faction) next week (or certainly within the next month) in exchange for acting now to get rid of Ley, which is what the New Right want done most of all.
Really good summary of the Liberal factions, from 3 months ago.
Great rundown, thanks. 👍