SYDNEY, Australia: Days after the country's worst mass shooting in nearly three decades at a Jewish holiday event, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that Australia would introduce wide-ranging reforms to crack down on hate speech.

Albanese said on December 18 that the government will look to introduce legislation making it easier to charge people who promote hate speech and violence, increase penalties, and develop a regime for targeting organizations whose leaders engage in hate speech.

"Australians are shocked and angry. I am angry. It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge much more," Albanese told a news conference announcing the reforms.

Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son, Naveed, fired on hundreds of people celebrating Hanukkah on Sydney's famous Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 in an attack inspired by the Islamic State. The attack shocked the nation and led to fears over rising antisemitism.

Naveed Akram was charged with 59 offences on December 17 after waking from a coma, including murder and terror charges.

The leader of New South Wales, where the attack occurred, said he would recall the state parliament next week to pass urgent reforms to gun laws.

The parents of 10-year-old Bondi Beach shooting victim Matilda had earlier criticised the government for failing to respond to what they described as a growing tide of antisemitism. "We have been saying for years … they didn't do anything," Valentyna, Matilda's mother, told Australian media.

Matilda, whose funeral was held on December 18, was the youngest of the 15 people killed in the shooting. Her service followed the first funerals for other victims held a day earlier, including those of Rabbis Eli Schlanger, 41, and Yaakov Levitan, 39.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government said it has consistently denounced antisemitism over the past two years. It has passed legislation criminalising hate speech and, in August, expelled the Iranian ambassador after accusing Tehran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

In the latest incident, a 19-year-old man from Sydney was charged with allegedly threatening violence against a Jewish person on a flight from Bali to Sydney.

The centre-left Labor government has, for now, ruled out holding a Royal Commission — a high-level inquiry with judicial powers — into the shootings. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Thursday that such a commission would distract Australia's security agencies at a time when they should be focused on investigating the attacks.

Police are examining Australia-based Islamic State networks, as well as the gunmen's alleged links to militants in the Philippines. The Philippine National Security Council said that while Sajid Akram and his son had been in the country for a month in November, they had not engaged in any military training.

Islamic State-linked networks are known to operate in the Philippines and have exerted some influence in the country's south.