The biggest loser in the political brinkmanship Anthony Albanese and Labor lured Sussan Ley and the Liberals into with the hate group legislation no one wanted is, as always, the public.

Australia has now cemented another authoritarian law that gives police and politicians unchallenged authority to outlaw any group they don’t like by designating them a hate group, based on vibes and maybes.

It was a  bill so bad that it spurred the Greens, One Nation, the Senate crossbench and the Nationals to join together on the same side of the chamber in opposing it.

This disparate group was united in the belief that the legislation was rushed, too broad and full of unintended consequences – even if they weren’t ideologically on the same page about why.

A bill so terrible that Attorney-General Michelle Rowland – sounding like Chat GPT attempting to avoid a direct answer – couldn’t say how it would apply in practice to people opposing a genocide. And she’ll be one of those making the decisions.

It is no secret that Ley doesn’t know what she is doing. There has never been a principle she hasn’t been willing to sacrifice for personal gain, a political position she isn’t willing to change if it proves more immediately beneficial.  

And despite five weeks of winning the media narrative – if not the public – on the government’s response to the antisemitic Bondi terror attack, Ley handed Albanese everything he needed to bring about her political demise.

In deciding to support the hate group legislation against the advice of some in her party – who could actually see the trap the party was walking into – Ley sacrificed not only the illusion of authority she was clinging to over the summer, but revealed a leader guided by her worst political instincts, unable to see the liberties for the Sky News chat groups.

Andrew Hastie, who was........

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