SENATOR THE HON BRIDGET MCKENZIE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
LEADER OF THE NATIONALS IN THE SENATE
SENATOR FOR VICTORIA
TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW: SKY NEWS WITH TRUDY MCINTOSH
TOPICS: Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026
15th January 2026
E&EO …
TRUDY MCINTOSH
I want to go now to the Nationals Senate Leader, Bridget McKenzie. We’ve got this statement, a lengthy one at that, on our screen there, Bridget. You’ve just heard some of it. Peter Wertheim arguing that the status quo is no longer tolerable. We need legislative reform now, even if it’s less than ideal. Are you willing to heed the calls there from one of Australia’s most respected Jewish leaders?
BRIDGET MCKENZIE
Well, Trudy, as we started to discuss yesterday, changing laws around freedom of speech, is such a significant change to the way we conduct ourselves as a society that this bill needed much more than the very short, sharp, perfunctory review that’s been undertaken over the last 48 hours. Submissions to that inquiry are due at four o’clock today. The report will be written tomorrow for legislation that we’re supposed to debate on Tuesday next week. The 500 pages of the bill and the explanatory memorandum only arrived on everyone’s doorsteps a couple of days ago. So I fully appreciate, as a Zionist myself, the concerns of the Australian Jewish community and the concerns that they have been raising for over two years around the spike in antisemitism and the horrific attack that came on the back of synagogue bombings, businesses being trashed, children being spat on the way to school over the last two and a half years. So, we’ve talked about this ad nauseum. To only give our society, our parliament, 48 hours on which to really get this right so we don’t see the unintended consequences that Britain’s currently experiencing with these types of laws. It is really beholden on the government and the Prime Minister to make sure the parliament can do its job to get the experts around the table. When I’ve spoken to stakeholders, whether it be law councils and the like, or indeed those involved in the firearm industry, they’re scrambling to get their legal eagles across the legislation so they can make some sort of sensible commentary to this hearing. That’s not the way to conduct this type of significant change. We didn’t do it with Mabo, we didn’t do it with Marriage Equality, we didn’t do it with The Voice and we shouldn’t be doing it with this.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
But, Bridget, I wonder if the intervention, from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry here will shift the dial in terms of the Coalition’s view. I know you believe there are significant shortcomings. That is acknowledged by Peter Wertheim himself. He appeared for more than an hour yesterday at this parliamentary hearing. He is telling the Coalition, in his words, don’t allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE
Well, Trudy, as you said, it’s breaking news. I’ll read the statement with interest. I think the Australian Jewish community knows what strong supporters we as a coalition have been of them and their issues over the last two and a half years.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Liberal and the National Party stand with the Jewish Australians in the face of a government that silenced its own ears for two and a half years as we saw antisemitism rise.
The bill before us doesn’t even deal with the issue of Islamic extremism treaty. It’s not mentioned once in the bill. So, I find it very difficult to stomach, very difficult to stomach a government that’s saying they’ve got the solution to the problem we’ve been screaming about. And yet they can’t even name the actual problem, which is Islamic extremism.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
I want to put to you the government’s rebuttal to that. The opposition leader made that same argument this morning that it’s not mentioned in the bill. Now, the government’s saying that the bill targets antisemitism right across the board, be that from the ideological standpoint of radical Islam, but also if your ideology is neo-Nazi, that it is necessarily targeting all antisemitic hate. What’s your response?
BRIDGET MCKENZIE
Well, all antisemitic hate needs to be squashed. I mean, we don’t want to be in a society where our Jewish citizens are targeted. I think there’s been a whole reckoning over the summer since Bondi of everyday Australians with compassionate hearts who were co-opted into a global Islamic extremist PR campaign and took to the streets in our capital city marching week in week out for two years now thinking, ‘Was I actually part of an antisemitic movement?’ Yes, you were. You may not see yourself as antisemitic, but those marches had antisemitism at their very heart. There’s had to be quite a confronting period for individuals in our society as a whole coming to terms with how that was visited upon our society and how changed we are as a result. So, we have to deal with antisemitism, right? Of course, we must implement Jillian Segal’s recommendations of a report that she handed to the Prime Minister over six months ago. But this bill…
TRUDY MCINTOSH (Interrupting)
Bridget, can I ask you about the parliamentary hearings we’ve had…
BRIDGET MCKENZIE (Continuing)
…doesn’t pass muster.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
If the Coalition does not do a deal with the Labor Party here, it essentially deals with the Greens. That’s the reality of the numbers in the Senate. You know it better than I do, every day sitting on the floor. Could that risk making your concerns about the hate speech bill worse or even the changes when it comes to gun laws, that they could be even tougher because Labor is doing a deal with the Greens because they can’t with the Coalition?
BRIDGET MCKENZIE
Well, I think this really says everything that we’re going to do deals around such a significant piece of legislation, a piece of legislation that says it wants to deal with antisemitism, that says it wants to deal with migration law. Every single senator, every single member of parliament, needs to be putting the national interest first and so does the government. Stop playing politics and rushing this bill through because you know, Trudy, as well as I do, stakeholders, Sporting Shooters Association, industry, legal experts needed more time to provide the level of advice to government and to the parliament to get these laws right. That’s how our system works. If you’re not going to let everyone do their job so we can get the best possible outcome for our country, then that’s on the government, right? It is on the Prime Minister’s head. Stop playing politics. Deal with the antisemitism in the Labor Party. Deal with it within your own parliamentary wing and deal with it in Labor Party seats. That’s where the problem is. Take that up, Prime Minister, and then we’ll think you’ve got the courage to make a difference. This bill doesn’t do the job.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
Nationals Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie, I’m glad you fixed the camera issues we were having yesterday. I appreciate you coming back on. Thank you.
BRIDGET MCKENZIE
See you next week.
ENDS