Authorities in Victoria will ban people wearing balaclavas and waving the flags of terrorist groups at demonstrations in a crackdown that Jewish leaders welcomed as helping to combat antisemitism but Opposition Leader Peter Dutton slammed as coming too slowly.

The changes announced on Tuesday edge Victoria closer to NSW, which has a protest permit system in place, where police can order demonstrators wearing face coverings to remove them, and in which the government has vowed to prohibit rallies outside places of worship.