Australians will be banned from making the Nazi salute in public after the federal government reversed its position on the issue amid pressure from the opposition and Jewish community groups.
The government will also move to ban the public display of the symbols of any proscribed terrorist organisation – a designation including Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic State – rather than a previous plan that singled out a flag associated with IS.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced the government would ban the Nazi salute.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Labor members of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security earlier this month rejected a Coalition proposal to ban the Nazi salute in a rare breakdown of bipartisanship within the committee.
Peter Khalil, the Labor chair of the committee, said at the time the government’s intention to outlaw symbols such as the swastika but not the Nazi salute was informed by police advice, noting laws could not be effective unless they could be enforced.
The Labor majority on the committee said it “strongly condemns the actions of those who would seek to intimidate the parts of the Australian community with physical gestures such as the Nazi salute”.
“However, the committee is of the view that such an offence would not be appropriate as a federal offence, but rather is an appropriate matter for state and territory law,” they wrote.
The government changed its mind in a bid to fend off parliamentary debate about the issue and ensure the passage of its hate symbols bill was a unifying moment, even if the Nazi salute ban proved difficult to enforce.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton earlier this month accused Anthony Albanese of not doing enough to combat antisemitism, a charge the prime minister passionately rejected.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Tuesday the new federal laws “will ensure that no one will be allowed to glorify or profit from acts and symbols which celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology”.
“There is absolutely no place in Australia for hatred, violence and antisemitism,” he said.
Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, applauded the government’s change of mind.
“This bill will deliver a blow to those inflamed with vicious antisemitism who have weaponised this evil gesture as a rallying cry to terrorise the community,” said Abramovich, who campaigned for the Nazi salute ban.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said: “The amended bill has many positive features which will be welcome news to the Australian Jewish community, especially with the extraordinary increases we have seen recently in the level of antisemitism from different quarters.”
Liberal MP Andrew Wallace, the deputy chair of the intelligence and security committee, said: “I’m glad to hear that Labor has done a backflip and has finally committed to amending legislation to prohibit the Nazi salute.”
Victoria recently banned the Nazi salute.
White supremacist Jacob Hersant was the first person charged with the offence after allegedly performing the banned action outside a Melbourne court earlier this month.
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