WATCH: CN Live! — ‘Free Speech in the Dock’

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Under the new law passed this week by the Australian Parliament, a pro-Palestinian group could potentially be banned and its members arrested for accusing Israel of genocide. A senator who opposed the bill joins CN Live!

The Australian Parliament has adopted a potentially nation-altering hate crimes bill that allows an intelligence agency and the government to collaborate in virtual secrecy to list “hate groups” whose members and supporters could be then imprisoned, according to the text of the law and to senators who voted against it in a late-night session on Tuesday.  

The law could allow peaceful organizations protesting against Israel to be listed without due process as hate groups in a hidden process between the Australian Intelligence Security Organisation (ASIO), which is the national domestic intelligence agency similar to the F.B.I., the attorney general and the home affairs minister. 

Asked by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) four times whether a group accusing Israel of genøcide could be designated a “hate group,” federal Attorney-General Michelle Rowland ultimately said she would rely on the advice of ASIO & the police in such a case.

GUESTS: Sen. David Shoebridge and Nasser Mashni, director of the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network (APAN).  INTERVIEWERS: Cathy Vogan and Joe Lauria.

5 comments for “WATCH: CN Live! — ‘Free Speech in the Dock’

  1. Otto
    February 1, 2026 at 07:16

    In 20, 50, 100 years or so people will be astounded, amazed and will be unable to believe that all Western ‘democratic’ govts. supported the Zionist mass slaughter of so many thousands of innocents.

    “But of course that was in the past and it’s not like that now so let’s just take a note of it and continue with our good lives now. Think of all the horrible things that have happened in the past which don’t affect us now. Israel is a goody goody now so all’s well”.

    Israel knows this so they are not worried by critcism now.

  2. Verity
    January 24, 2026 at 22:07

    It appears many politicians of the Australian Parliament have failed to identify the Zionist philosophy as clearly racist.

    When legislation of this nature is produced and shovelled through the parliament in a hurry, it is usually all about the next Federal Elections. Sadly, history reflects this to be the case with the majority of mediocre careerist politicians.

    Now both the government and opposition members of parliament, like two cheeks of the one bottom, can together display to the Australian Zionist-Israeli lobby that they are right behind their ‘Palestinian Genocide”.

    Well, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, maybe it is time to remind you that “The People United Will Never Be Defeated”
    which you seem to have cast aside these days.

    Bets are on already, that the Zionists will not win this one, and maybe neither will you.

  3. common sense
    January 23, 2026 at 18:18

    Is the australian government acknowledging the International Court Of Justice?

  4. Beverley Dight
    January 23, 2026 at 10:10

    These laws are also to ensure that Prime Minister Albanese and the Labor Party will not lose the next election. The Israel Lobby in Australia has through bribery and blackmail greatly influenced the government. Albanese, who has been blamed for not protecting Jewish people, is desperately attempting to rehabilitate his reputation. Like most leaders his main interest is to win the next election.

  5. Joe Lenzo
    January 22, 2026 at 15:20

    It is a worry with the government kowtowing to the zionazi lobby group at every trurn.

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