The Australian Parliament has just passed the Combatting Extremism, Hate and Extremism Bill, a sweeping piece of legislation that fundamentally alters rule of law in this country.

The passage of this legislation follows weeks of political turmoil following Bondi, with overarching proposed political and legislative responses demanded by pro-Zionist advocates before facts had been established, trials commenced and the royal commission initiated.

This legislation has only one purpose, which is to criminalise all pro-Palestinian activism, starting with Muslim and Palestinian activism. This much was made clear by the Prime Minister, the Home Affairs Minister and the Director-General of ASIO, who all specified the targeted aim of this legislation was the proscription of Hizb ut Tahrir.

Indeed, after weeks of political charades, only one sweeping measure remained, which was always the objective … the introduction of a new hate listing regime, despite the abandonment of the new hate speech threshold, that will rest entirely on ministerial discretion and the absence of procedural fairness.

Hizb ut Tahrir / Australia says the following regarding today’s developments:

1. Gaza has exposed everyone and masks have fallen everywhere. The facade of rule of law, international law and human rights have been irrevocably exposed as hollow claims used to enact and justify the worst crimes. The rest of the world already knew it, now Westerners know it too.

2. This criminal piece of legislation has been introduced for no other purpose except to protect the criminality of a foreign entity. Australia is once again being dragged into the abyss by fighting another’s foreign war.

3. Australia has officially entered the era of unchecked tyranny. Whilst its effects may not be immediately felt given its first target will be Muslim and Palestinian activism, the framework has now been set normalising executive overreach and the abandonment of natural justice.

4. All of this comes at a time the post WWII order is being deliberately torn down, removing pretences of rights and laws, and advancing raw power as the only arbiter of right and wrong. The barbarity of the occupation’s genocide, and the unrestrained military support afforded to it, is symptomatic of this new emerging world order, but so is the people’s opposition to it. 

HIzb ut Tahrir will seek to challenge this law and any attempted proscription that results from it.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

in Australia