From the Parliamentary Press Gallery: Following yesterday’s shemozzle, and after a good night’s sleep, I rode my new scrambler into Parliament House just in time to get the very last motorcycle parking space. All eyes were on the Albanese government as the failed omnibus bill was split into two distinct bills, one for hate speech and one for gun laws.

You can’t make up the stuff that happens in Parliament. I often think those among us who are cynical about politics have every right to be. But don’t take my word for it, ask One Nation.

Senator Pauline Hanson won’t be in the debate that will run late tonight because she is banned from the Senate for warning about Islamist extremism. That’s right, protesting the ideology that inspired the murder of 15 Australians is the reason Senator Hanson is not allowed to vote on the laws designed to stop Islamic terrorism in Australia.

So, I asked Senator Hanson if she thought the hate laws and gun laws that passed the Lower House today would protect Australians against future home-grown terrorist attacks. She responded:

‘The short answer is that Anthony Albanese’s dog’s breakfast of a Bill will NOT protect Australians from future home-grown terrorist attacks.

‘We already have sufficient laws in place to deal with hate speech by radical Islam preachers, antisemitic acts and terrorists. We already have some of the world’s toughest gun laws. Albanese’s legislation is just the PM’s desperate attempt to be seen to be doing something, but all that he’s achieved is to unite Australians against him and expose himself as unfit for office.’

I thought the requirement that only citizens can hold a gun licence and gun licences required an ASIO check were a fair call. But what genius thought not having these requirements or not monitoring those who had multiple weapons and were on an ASIO watchlist was a good idea in the first place?

But if you’d heard the debates in both the House and the Senate today, you’d think that criminals and terrorists would be hamstrung by not being able to get a gun licence. People who have no interest in following the law won’t be able to get a gun because they can’t get a gun licence? It makes no sense whatsoever.

And the idea that Australians have more guns now than they did at the time of the Port Arthur massacre ignores the fact that there are more Australians today. Incidentally, it also ignores the fact that in the early 1990s you could buy a Chinese-made SKK (a poor man’s AK-47) with three 30-round magazines and 1,000 rounds of armour-piercing ammunition with no gun licence and for the princely sum of about $250. I don’t remember any terrorist attacks back then, either, but I digress.

There were so many contradictions today. Andrew Hastie previously stated that he would not be voting for the hate laws bill and then today he not only voted for it, but said that he was:

‘Putting Australia’s Security First – I voted to ban militant Islamist groups and neo-Nazis.’

The Nationals were supposed to abstain from the guns laws vote but the Member for Riverina and former Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, voted for it. In my opinion, the LNP has a lot to answer for in the way it has blurred the blue and the green.

Ironically, referring to antisemitism during Question Time, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley found her voice again and asked the Prime Minister:

‘Can the Prime Minister humble himself for once and just say sorry?’

And later:

‘Can the Prime Minister finally humble himself and just say sorry?’

And later about the Royal Commission:

‘Or was he just making stuff up?’

The Attorney-General made the point that the laws were forcing some groups to disband, appearing to forget that the groups that ought to be disbanded are Islamist terrorists.

When pushed to say sorry to Australia’s Jewish community, Mr Albanese not only said that he was ‘sorry this had occurred’, but he went on to say that:

‘When Port Arthur happened, the Parliament came together. No one saw that as a political opportunity… When the Bali bombings occurred, people didn’t see that as an opportunity for politics, people saw that as the need for the national interest to be put first.’

To put this in context, under the Albanese government’s watch, the Australian Federal Police’s National Surveillance Team, established under the Commonwealth High Risk Terrorist Offender regime, decided to shut up shop just weeks before the Bondi massacre due to budget constraints.

Further, Albanese’s Labor government had removed the heads of ASIO and ASIS from the permanent membership of the National Security Committee (NSC) of Cabinet after taking office in 2022. Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen become a regular attendee instead. The Albanese government backflipped in July 2024 and ASIO chief Mike Burgess was reappointed to the NSC.

Today, the Opposition pushed Mr Albanese to apologise to the Jewish community but instead he claimed:

‘The idea that antisemitism began with the election of the government in 2022 is just not right.’

When pushed by Liberal MP Julian Leeser on a point of order about apologising to the Australian-Jewish community (rather than providing a history of antisemitism in Australia), Mr Albanese said:

‘Let me be very clear, Mr Speaker. All governments should have done better. That is my point. The idea that antisemitism began two years ago with the change of government is false and it’s declared to be false by the comments of those opposite in senior positions. Despite the surge in antisemitism upon their watch, did the Morrison government appoint … a special envoy to combat antisemitism? No.

‘Did they establish a joint operation, bringing together the AFP and ASIO to combat acts of antisemitism? No. Did they introduce Australia’s first-ever hate speech laws? No. Did they legislate a crackdown on preachers and leaders who promote violence? No…’

And so on.

Hamas never praised the actions of my Government @AlboMP, but they did praise yours.

Wall Street Journal article published on 19 December, 2025https://t.co/H5ISaLXX91

— Hon. Scott Morrison AC (@ScoMo30) January 20, 2026

Before the Albanese government was elected, I don’t recall endless pro-Palestinian protests or Hamas congratulating the actions of any Australian government. I don’t recall any Australian government recognising a Palestinian state or voting against Israel in the UN. Further, I don’t recall students on university campuses strutting about with Palestinian flags at graduation ceremonies, either.

Parliament is a place to make laws. But leadership matters. It sets the tone of a nation. Indeed, part of public policy’s purpose is to establish a sense of the values that are important in a particular society.

If I were an alien visiting Planet Parliament House today, I would have thought that effective governance was about being able to tell the biggest porkies. But even my dog Frankie doesn’t create the absolute dog’s breakfast produced by our Parliament today.

Dr Michael de Percy @FlaneurPolitiq is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent. If you would like to support his writing, or read more of Michael, please visit his website.