Ley's Coalition 'does not need to see' sexuality protections in hate speech laws

The Socialist Bulletin Staff - 7/1/2026

SUSSAN Ley's Coalition, the second-largest party group in Australia, has confirmed that it is opposed to including sexuality protections in the hate speech laws that it now advocates following the Bondi terrorist attack.

During a Press Conference on Wednesday in which Opposition Leader Sussan Ley touted the Opposition's newfound support for hate speech laws, she insisted that the legislation must focus solely on 'Islamic extremism', 'far-leftism' and 'Nazism', specifically when relating to antisemitism. This is despite the proposed legislation being a new overarching hate speech law. Ley stated that the legislation must not 'go after free speech', when discussing the issue of sexuality or gender-related protections, indicating that she and her party view vile homophobia and transphobia as a form of 'free speech', despite it being shown to lead to death or injury in many cases for the victim.

This is a condemnable and deplorable statement by the Opposition Leader, yet is unsurprising, as the Liberal Party is the party of John Howard, who called those advocating for same-sex marriage 'fundamentalists' and of Tony Abbott, who said in 2010 that he felt 'threatened' by homosexuality. The Liberal Party has not condemned these statements, and still wheel out Abbott and especially Howard whenever the two men have something to say.

Also in the statement was the false implication that the 'far-left' position on Palestine was in any way related to the Bondi attack, which was carried out by terrorists that oppose a Palestinian state as supporters of the Islamic State, and that the 'far-left' position on Palestine is as antisemitic as Nazism. This is despite actual Nazis, members of the hate group the National Socialist Network, holding a rally in November in Sydney utilising vile antisemitism to push their agenda. No such antisemitism has been peddled by the large left-wing organisations or Palestine advocacy groups.

Ley has billed herself as a 'Moderate', aiming to pull the Liberal Party, and the Coalition as a whole, back to the 'centre'. This latest statement shows what a 'Moderate Liberal' is, and where they stand on the most basic protections for minority populations, the absolute bare minimum of things that can be achieved for the working class, the class that LGBTQIA+ people overwhelmingly belong to, under capitalism. The core difference between the Coalition and Labor/The Greens is made clear by this statement by Ley: Labor and the Greens attempt to seem palatable and for rights, and the Coalition does not care.