Parliamentarians in Victoria, Australia, are still considering whether to introduce new laws to outlaw the public display of Nazi symbols, including swastikas, according to a report by Australia’s ABC News.
Shadow Police Minister Walt Secord, who is proposing the new law, told the lawmakers last Thursday that police were powerless to stop those who displayed the Nazi flag in 2020, because it wasn’t against the law. “It’s deeply offensive; it’s a symbol of genocide,” he said. “Someone who is carrying a Nazi flag in public is just beyond The Pale.”
A range of exemptions to the ban are also being mulled, including when Nazi symbols are used in films, museums and/or by religious groups, such as the Hindus, who consider the broken cross an ancient religious symbol.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson cautioned, however, that forcing such symbols underground with a ban might result in them gaining “a certain mystique and attraction for certain individuals. We’re not dealing with people who are mainstream Australia,” he warned, “we have individuals who align themselves to extreme right-wing ideology,” who he said would “certainly be attracted to the prohibition of this type of symbol.”
Hudson added, however, that his reservations were “not in relation to [the bill’s] intent, but in relation to the mechanics of how it might operate.”
Introduced in NSW on October 13, 2021, the Crimes Amendment (Display of Nazi Symbols) Bill 2021 “seeks to create a new offense specifically aimed at curbing public expressions of Nazi insignia, in recognition that they’re designed to intimidate,” the NSW Courts website explains.
The explanatory memorandum on the legislation notes that the object of the bill is to “prohibit the public display of a symbol of, or associated with, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, the Third Reich or neo-Nazism… except in certain circumstances.
“The bill seeks to insert new section 93ZA into the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), which contains the offense prohibiting the public display of a Nazi symbol, with a maximum penalty of 6 months imprisonment and/or a fine of $5,500 applying to individuals, while a guilty corporation would face a $55,000 fine,” says the site.
The measure was also introduced by lawmakers in the state of Victoria, as far back as March 2021, with Premier Daniel Andrews telling lawmakers there was “no place” for Nazi symbols in the state. At that time, a parliamentary committee in Victoria was preparing to hand down a decision on whether swastikas should be banned.
By September, Victoria was getting closer to outlawing the public display of the swastika, with Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes saying community consultation later in the year would determine how broad the ban would be.
“There’s certainly very little opposition to banning the Nazi symbol in the form of the swastika and what it stands for and how it is used,” Symes said at the time. “To me, the most important people to hear from are Victorians who unfortunately have been subjected to this abhorrent behavior and how they think us as a state should respond and prevent it,” she said.
Also under consideration were the penalties for violations of the ban: currently the maximum penalty was six months in prison and/or nearly $10,000 in fines.
The ban on Nazi symbols in Victoria was expected to be passed in early 2022.
Anti-Defamation Commission Chairman Dvir Abramovich at that time called it a ‘day for the history books’ and a “resounding triumph for the victims of the Holocaust, the survivors and our brave diggers who died to vanquish the evil Third Reich regime – and a defeat of homegrown neo-Nazis who seek to keep Hitler’s legacy alive.”
He urged other states and territories to follow Victoria’s example.
“Antisemitism in Australia is not history,” Abramovich said this past week in connection with the NSW parliamentary inquiry debate on the ban. “It is news.”
