Victoria’s peak Jewish body says a proposed ban on displaying the swastika does not go far enough and all “harmful material” should be outlawed.
Jewish Community Council of Victoria president Jennifer Huppert on Tuesday told a parliamentary committee a swastika ban would be a “knee-jerk” reaction to rising anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism.
The state opposition has called for the state’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act to include a clear ban on public display of the Nazi symbol.
The Nazi insignia was pushed onto the agenda in January when local and state authorities were powerless under the law to act against a householder in the remote Mallee town of Beulah who flew a flag emblazoned with the swastika above their home.
Ms Huppert, who was addressing a parliamentary committee holding an inquiry into a possible expansion of the state’s anti-vilification laws, was repeatedly asked by Liberal MPs David Southwick and James Newbury whether she supported a swastika ban.
She said: “There’s been issues about the swastika, Nazi flags being flown, people doing other things … this is not new, it’s something that’s been simmering for a while. We were concerned about these and we wanted reform. I’m just concerned that whatever reform is brought in [should be] well thought through and actually deals with the issues in a fundamental way.
“I don’t have a problem with [the ban] but, and we’ve discussed it, we think it’s important there’s a [broader] ban on hate material.”
Read the article by Sumeyya Ilanbey in The Age.