TRANSCRIPT – 2CC with Stephen Cenatiempo

Angie Bell MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

Shadow Minister for Youth

Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

2CC with Stephen Cenatiempo

20 January 2026

Subjects: Hate speech and gun legislation; The Albanese government’s lack of action and leadership; Young Aussies shift to support Australia Day; Overdue heritage law reform.

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

To talk about these issues and others, we’re joined by the Shadow Minister for Environment and Shadow Minister for Youth, Angie Bell. Angie, good morning.

ANGIE BELL:

Great to be with you, Stephen.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Look, as I say, I mean, the legislation was always going to be problematic, but there should be no politics and condolence motions whatsoever.

ANGIE BELL:

Well, absolutely. And I gave a condolence speech yesterday, of course, for my electorate as well. And I actually used it as an opportunity for my Jewish community to have a voice and to send their condolences, which I think is appropriate. But these Greens, they’re absolutely outrageous. They’re off the scale. And I don’t know how any Australians can even listen to what comes out of their mouths at the moment.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Angie, we’re led to believe that the Coalition has now agreed to the revised legislation. It will go before the parliament today. What is likely to happen here? Because regardless of whether or not there’s agreement, the process here has still been shambolic.

ANGIE BELL:

The process has been shambolic from the Prime Minister because he’s delivered a train wreck of legislation. He’s flip-flopped on his bills. He was not going to split it. He was adamant about that and then he decided to split it after speaking with Sussan Ley on this. Look, the Liberal Party room met last night to discuss the bills. It was positive and constructive from our point of view, as Australians would expect us to try to make a difference after this horrible massacre that occurred on December the 14^th. Because those events really demanded serious action immediately.

I mean, we could have been back here in December, but the Prime Minister has dithered and delayed and obstructed like he did coming to the call for the Royal Commission. It has been an absolute mess. We’ve been clear, on the other hand, Stephen, from the very beginning of our package that we were talking about a month ago, that if you preach hatred, radical Islam, glorified terrorism or incite violence, you’ll be deported if you’re not an Australian citizen. And if you are an Australian citizen, you’ll be arrested. And I think that is black and white. It’s very clear. And that’s what these bills should be about.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

But Angie, my question is, why did Parliament need to be recalled early at all? And I’ll clarify that by saying that I haven’t seen the full suite of legislation that will go before the Parliament today, but I’ve read the summaries of it and I don’t see anything that materially changes. And I had Mike Pezzulo, the former Home Affairs Secretary on the program yesterday, who said, look, there are some minor changes that need to be made, but there’s no need to rush them. What we need to do is enforce existing law.

ANGIE BELL:

Well, that’s right. Enforcing the law is the most important thing. And Australians really haven’t seen the government do much about this rise in antisemitism. The government has let this fester over the last couple of years. It hasn’t stood up and said that this is wrong. And what’s happened as a result down the track is not a surprise to Jewish Australians, which is the saddest part about it. And so, yes, these laws, whatever the new laws end up being that are passed through the parliament, need to be enforced and they need to be enforced now so that 500,000 Jewish Australians, a minority group in this country, feel safe in their own country.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

But how do we guarantee that enforcement?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, that is a matter for law enforcement at a state level and of course at a federal level.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

I want to talk about the other part of the legislation that’s now been separated and that is firearms legislation. The Nationals’ rhetoric on this, I think, has been a little bit over the top because looking at the federal reforms here, it’s going to have very little impact on licenced firearms owners. State and territory laws will have some impact there, but a gun buyback scheme to get a few guns off the street, albeit at a cost of a billion dollars, is not necessarily a bad thing. Stricter background checks, ownership limits, I don’t really have a problem with, and import restrictions. The kicker here is this National Firearms Register. We’ve been talking about that since 1996, but the state registers aren’t good enough to actually populate a National Firearms Registry.

ANGIE BELL:

Well, we’ll see what the states and territories come up with when it comes to gun buybacks, because I know the states and territories are at odds with one another with where they’re landing on this and the Leader of the Opposition will have more to say about our position when she responds to the bills that will be introduced in less than an hour, Stephen, before we go into the Chamber and after our party room meeting, the Leader will have more to say on that.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Now, I want to talk about something. As your portfolio, as the Shadow Minister for Youth, new polling indicates there’s been a fairly significant shift in the long-standing debate over Australia Day, particularly amongst younger cohorts. There’s been a surge in 18 to 24-year-olds, suggesting that 83 per cent now support January 26. Is this woke rubbish of wanting to change the flag and change the date and change everything about Australia that we see every January now gone behind us?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I think this is great that young people are getting behind Australia Day. They understand, like all Australians, that there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging our history while still being a proud Australian of today and proud to be in our country. And we are the lucky country. We have to fight hard to make sure that we remain so. It’s been a terrible time over summer for particularly Jewish Australians and our communities across the country. But there are lots of reasons to be a proud Australian. We see the worst in Australians, but we also see the best when we have these sorts of terrible incidences occur. And Australians should come together. We need to be united, not divided. That’s my message.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

Now, Angie, something else you’re going to have to deal with, probably not today, but certainly come the 3rd of February as Parliament resumes properly, is the cultural heritage law reforms. And now there’s still issues headaches not only for landholders but also for Indigenous groups who are both concerned about these major legislative overhauls.

ANGIE BELL:

Yes, you’re right, Stephen. Look, the Minister has signaled to me personally that he does intend to try to reform these laws because they’re not serving Indigenous communities and they’re not serving the national interest. I mean, Labor has had four years to do something about these laws and all we’ve had now is a backlog of bureaucratic paralysis, to be honest. You know, the decisions have been paralysed on Indigenous cultural heritage decisions. And so, it is important that we try to work together like we did with the EPBC reforms. I mean, the government ended up doing a deal with the Greens in the end. I think they were always going to do a deal with the Greens, but certainly the Coalition will take a proactive and constructive approach to reforming these laws because we need to in the national interest.

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:

I’m sure we’ll talk more about this when you get back to Canberra in a couple of weeks’ time. Angie, I appreciate your time this morning.

ANGIE BELL:

Great to talk to you, Stephen. Ciao.

ENDS.