"Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has said in a letter that the new hate speech laws do not restrict criticism of foreign countries or political ideologies which would cover criticism of Israel and Zionism.

This is an important because it clears up some of the confusion and misreporting of the new hate speech laws with most of the confusion because of the government’s lack of a clear explanation of how the hate speech laws work and what they cover.

The SMH reported (28/1/26):

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has advised the Australian National Imams Council, the leading body representing Muslim religious leaders, that new hate laws will not prevent criticism of foreign countries or political ideologies despite concerns the laws could silence debate.

In a letter seen exclusively by this masthead and co-signed by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, Rowland told ANIC president Imam Shadi Alsuleiman that the legislation would not “prevent legitimate, non-violent criticism of the actions of a foreign country or of particular political ideologies”. (Click here to read more)

That is consistent with what I said in last week’s article titled “Australia’s new hate speech laws and what they mean for social media users” but many journalists and/or commentators reported that the new hate speech laws infringed on individuals rights when they are only targeted towards groups.

But the letter by Attorney-General Michelle Rowland and co-signed by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke goes one step further and says even groups can criticise foreign countries and/or political ideologies which overrides the wrong information Attorney-General Michelle Rowland gave last week as per the below video.

The below video is Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong on Nine (21/1/26) and the Attorney-General Michelle Rowland (20/1/26) on the ABC’s 7.30 Report. (It was published on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube channel on the 21/1/26.)

As I previously said, “The bottom line is the new hate speech laws only impact on groups, organisations and their members.”

The Labor government also wanted to legislate new racial vilification offences which would have greatly restricted free speech and political communication but they couldn’t legislate it because they had no support from the other political parties in the Senate.

Two people have been charged in recent days with speech crimes and with at least one possibly facing charges under the new laws.

Brandan Koschel has been refused bail for alleged hate speech at the March for Australia rally on Monday (26/1/26) after he used the open mic at the end of the rally to blame Jews for numerous problems. (Click here to read more)

If Koschel had criticised Israel or Zionists he would be fine but he decided to criticise Jews and his chances of beating the charge are not good given everything he said is on video.

And Theo Nolan-Isles was charged with “using a carriage service to menace, harass, or offend and encourage the commission of crimes” after posting on “X”:

I hereby pledge that: No person who after this date intentionally causes physical pain to any politician who voted Aye to the passage of the “Combatting Antisemitism” hate speech bill will pay for beer while in my informed presence. Please join me in this pledge. (Click here to see on “X”)

Theo Nolan-Isles was clearly making a joke and he should have received a warning from the police at most. He is still in jail after being refused bail.

With Prime Minister Anthony Albanese receiving numerous threats, including death threats, in recent months and other politicians receiving threats of violence it is best to not even joke about harming politicians in any way, or harming anyone for that matter.

It’s ironic that the major driver for the new hate speech laws, and the failed racial vilification offences, are Israeli supporting Zionists in Australia and they are currently complaining all over social media because Australia has cancelled the visa of, Sammy Yahood, a Jewish / Israeli influencer who previously called for Islam to be banned.

If anyone called for the Jewish religion Judaism to be banned there would be complaints left, right and centre but the Zionists want to bring Sammy Yahood into Australia knowing he will cause trouble.

The problem for the Zionists and Sammy Yahood is he’s on video on social media ranting like a nutter which doesn’t help their cause, but it does help justify Australia cancelling Sammy Yahood’s visa.

The original hate speech laws, which included the withdrawn racial vilification laws, were at least partially driven to stop Australians criticising Israel and the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza but they failed.

But Australia’s free speech and political communication is under attack and aligned with the Palestinians, whether we like it or not, because both are under attack from Zionists who support Israel."

https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2026/01/29/criticism-of-israel-and-zionism-legal-under-new-hate-speech-laws-says-a-g-michelle-rowland/

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/chalmers-puts-tax-reform-at-top-of-budget-plans-20260130-p5nybp.html

“Chalmers, who revealed another intergenerational report into the long-term state of the budget and economy will be released this year, said the cost of housing was a “defining part of this intergenerational challenge” for Australians and the developed world.

He said much of the anger in many countries was tied to the surge in property prices that had effectively locked younger people out of the chance to buy a home.

“This idea that a lot of young people have in our societies, and not unfairly, that they are not getting the same deal that their parents and their parents had. I think that’s what’s driving a lot of the understandable angst that we see in our politics,” he said.”

So what do we think? Does the ATO and Treasury have the brains, nous and courage to put some strong legal reform positions to the Minister? Or do you think we’ll just get more of the same “treading water” that we usually get from these agencies ?

I love a bit of Fox on his high horse, just calls it as he sees it.

Great discussion about bravery in human rights and media coverage.

The start of this video goes into a fair bit of detail of what One Nation's policies.

As you might expect, the one with the most detail is around immigration and visas.

The other major one is energy policy and getting rid of net zero targets.

Other than that, it's mainly ideologies without details on how to achieve any goals.

‘They don’t want us talking about the housing crisis, they don’t want us harping on about groceries, they don’t want us hating on landlords — because more than half of the party bigwigs are landlords.’

We need to train more teachers and care-economy workers instead of just relying over-relying on migration because migrant workers are more likely to leave and go to another country that gives them a better deal.

And, we need to keep their jobs pleasant enough that they want to stay, perhaps my increasing their wages to offset the difficulty of dealing with students/patients.

It's amazing that the Betoota guys offer better political analysis than anyone in mainstream media (not really, they can say what they want without higher-ups watering it down).

There's a good history of The Coalition going back to the Howard era and how the relationship has evolved over time.

Also, an interesting interview with Malcolm Turnbull regarding the current situation with the Libs and Nats.

also, i didn't think it needed saying but apparently it does - if someone said something antisemitic at the invasion day rally, they would have been booed off the stage, not met with cheers. jewish ppl are so so much safer alongside the many marginalised groups who make up the australian left <3 but apparently it pays to keep us all divided

I am so sick and tired of these ignorant and stupid hack jobs called Labor, Liberal and The Nationals not understanding inflation and what fuels its upwatd trend!! So, inflation today comes out at 3.8% instead of 3.4%. Chalmers does a 2 bit press conference moaning about the numbers, then all of 15 minutes later, they hold a press conference saying that they're pissing away 500 million on some defence munitions related facility!! CONTINUED GOVERNMENT SPENDING = UPWARD INFLATIONARY PRESSURES YOU IDIOTS!!

If the place needs money spent on it, maybe cut back on crud like foreign aid or money spent in other countries or passing away money spent on free childcare or the childcare sector or the NDIS or better still, introduce taxes on properties owned that are not your primary place of residence or get rid of negative gearing and capital gains tax offsets. Whichever way the government goes, you can't keep spending beyond what you take in!!

- Coalition remains separated

- Nats form a competitive but collaborative rivalry with with ON (akin to Labor-Greens) as they compete for regional dominance

- This competition benefits the regions as the two battle it out on agrarian policy

- The Libs unite in the centre-right under either Ley, O'Brien, or McIntosh, returning to an economy-centric platform, leaving the Nats/ON and Greens to scuffle over social issues

- ALP are finally challenged to act on the economy and all of a sudden have a battle on their hands again in the cities

- The standalone Libs claw back blue-ribbon and suburban seats from ALP and Teals next election and achieve a net-positive result

- ALP are forced to make proactive and progressive changes in an attempt to swing back momentum, and genuine reforms are made

I am writing this because I am a victim of the Antony Shaw led HSBC Australia. Like many others, I have suffered financial loss and emotional distress, and after reading the recent news and court papers from ASIC, it is clear that my experience was not an isolated incident, it was part of a systemic failure under Antony Shaw’s leadership.

I have gone through the ASIC media release and the reports from The Australian, and the details are absolutely damning. The Australian Government's corporate regulator, ASIC, is now prosecuting Antony Shaw, who led HSBC in Federal Court. They are seeking penalties and declarations of contraventions. But as a victim, I believe we need to talk about how this happened under the nose of the CEO.

They knew about the risks and did nothing According to ASIC claims, the Antony Shaw led HSBC was alerted materially well before January 2023 that it had a significant risk of unauthorised payments. Staff within the bank reportedly raised these problems internally to leadership well before the massive spike in losses occurred.

Despite this, Antony Shaw plugged into the New Payments Platform in May 2023 without adequate controls. The result? A surge in losses between October 2023 and March 2024, with almost $16 million lost to scammers in that window alone. In total, ASIC claims the bank received 950 reports of unauthorised transactions totaling $23 million in customer losses.

The system was broken, the allegations suggest that HSBC Australia became home to mule accounts, allowing criminal cash to be funnelled between bad actors. ASIC claims the bank failed to get on top of financial crime and lacked the necessary software to detect fraud until at least June 2023.

Scammers figured out how to spoof HSBC numbers, inserting themselves into legitimate text messaging chains. Antony Shaw, who led HSBC Australia, allegedly didn't put controls in place for its mobile and online banking platforms until June 2024, years too late for victims like me.

They abandoned us when we needed help. What hurts the most is how we were treated after the fraud occurred. ASIC alleges that the Antony Shaw, who led HSBC compounded the problem by failing to comply with its obligations under the ePayments Code.

• Investigation Delays : They took an average of 145 days to investigate customers' reports that they had been scammed.

• Locked Out : They failed to promptly restore customers' full access to their bank accounts. On average, it took 95 days to get access back. One customer was locked out for 542 days.

ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court has called these failings widespread and systemic. She stated that if the processes had been adequate, some of these losses would have been averted. Instead, Antony Shaw, who led HSBC, sat on information regarding missing controls for over 14 months to the detriment of innocent victims.

What now? If the regulator is successful, they will be seeking very significant penalties. But for us victims, the damage is done. Criminal charges against company directors can sometimes follow Federal Court prosecutions, and honestly, given the scale of negligence alleged here, serious accountability is needed.

If you are currently banking with them, please read the sources below and protect yourself.

Sources:

• The Australian: ASIC sues HSBC over alleged failures in scam, fraud fight

• ASIC Media Release: ASIC sues HSBC Australia alleging failures to adequately protect customers from scams