Dr WOODRUFF – Minister, Victoria’s Attorney-General, Jaclyn Symes, has recently announced that the Victorian government will be banning the display of Nazi iconography, including the swastika and also making civil and criminal vilification easier to prove, so that victims can seek justice more easily. Following Victoria’s lead on this issue and will you examine and reconsider your previous position on banning the sale of Nazi memorabilia?
Ms ARCHER – I had heard this not so long ago. Most members of our community would appreciate that this a deeply upsetting issue for many in our community and that we don’t condone the displaying of it, at all. We’ve taken the position in the past that memorabilia used as an educative function only is something that should remain and should be permitted. We learn from mistakes of history. We know that, for example, in Germany they still the concentration camps to serve as a reminder of the atrocities that were committed. It is why I’ve committed in my Arts portfolio to the Holocaust Education Centre.
I’m committed to looking at it, as I would when any state or territory does something that’s new or different. We do look at it and we look at it in terms of our own laws and regulations, Dr Woodruff. I’m prepared to look at it because that that type of issue is deeply concerning but at the same time we also need to look at the balance of an educative value so that these atrocities never happen again.
It may well be that we can achieve that through our new Holocaust Education Centre and therefore changes to our regulations might be.
Read this extract from the Tasmanian Parliament courtesy Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP.