Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for the Arts, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs and Leader of the House) (20:24): We're well and truly out of my portfolio on this. I will simply provide the House with what I've been advised. First of all, when the current terminology was put into the act, at that point, it was welcomed, and the terminology has moved on since.

There are a large number of acts, as I understand it, which interact, where, if the terminology were to be changed, it would need to be done together. There was one other occasion in this term when it was sought to be changed in one act, and the advice at the time was not an in-principle objection to the change; it was simply that to do it one bill at a time could in fact take people's rights away, because of the way some of these bills interact.

So I don't want the government's opposition to this to be taken as an in-principle opposition in any way, shape or form, but I've been advised that there is a practical problem in doing it this way. Question unresolved. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): As the question is unresolved, in accordance with standing order 188 the question will be included in the Federation Chamber's report to the House on the bill.