The government agrees Islamophobia is close to being normalised but won't check whether its own laws are part of the reason
The government accepted 35 of 54 recommendations from its own Islamophobia envoy, but not the independent review of counterterrorism laws he has pushed from the start.
Anthony Albanese says Islamophobia is dangerously close to being normalised in Australia.
His own special envoy handed him a report on how to stop it 10 months ago. On Saturday the government accepted 35 of its 54 recommendations.
Aftab Malik, the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, released the report in Sydney.
“There is simply no place in Australia, or anywhere in the world, for Islamophobia and racial hatred,” he said.
The accepted measures are real money and real structure.
There is $41.9 million to improve security at Muslim faith-based places. An education task force to train politicians and public servants. A review of the Australian Curriculum. Expanded Australian Federal Police community liaison teams and a portal for Muslims facing abuse.
Then there are the 19 the government didn't take.
Chief among them is the one Malik has pushed since the start: an independent review of Australia's counterterrorism laws, to examine whether they discriminate against Muslims.
That is the recommendation aimed at the roots, and it is the one left on the table.
“To tackle Islamophobia at its roots, we must address the challenging questions,” Malik said.
“Muslim Australians should not be expected to bear the cost of that complexity indefinitely.”
“Where the government has acted, I will support that progress. Where recommendations remain outstanding, I will continue to advocate for them.”
The context is not abstract.
Islamophobic incidents in Australia have risen 650 per cent between October 2023 and June 2026, according to the Islamophobia Register.
In person they are up 150 per cent. Online, 250 per cent.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke called the problem chronically under-reported.
“We have seen a rise in Islamophobic attacks and abuse directed at Muslim Australians,” he said.
“It is widespread. It is debilitating. And it is unacceptable.”
Which is the tension the government is now holding.
Its own ministers describe Islamophobia as widespread, debilitating and close to normalised. Its own envoy spent 10 months building a plan. And the single measure designed to test whether the state's own laws are part of the problem is the one that didn't make the list.
Malik called Saturday the start of the journey, not the end.
The 19 he is still waiting on will tell him how far it goes.