A leading Jewish group and a police union have warned that the federal government’s proposed legislation banning two Nazi symbols won’t work because it will be easily circumvented by right-wing extremists.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s co-chief executive, Peter Wertheim, said neo-Nazis would be able to get around the proposed banning of two symbols — the Nazi hakenkreuz (sometimes mistaken for the Swastika) and Schutzstaffel symbols (SS lightning bolts) — by using other well-known symbols.
“I’m sure the [federal] government doesn’t want this legislation to be mere window dressing,” he said. “It’s got to be a workable law and effective as well.”
Wertheim said it would be almost impossible for anyone to be prosecuted for displaying a Nazi symbol under the federal government’s legislation because of its narrow focus.
Wertheim said legislation just passed in Tasmania was superior because it was not a limited ban of a few specific symbols and it gave courts discretion to determine what constituted a Nazi symbol.
The federal government introduced legislation in June banning the two Nazi symbols, the sale of Nazi items and also the black flag associated with Islamic State which includes the Shahada, an affirmation of faith. The moves have attracted controversy, with Muslim groups saying the IS flag ban risks criminalising legitimate displays of a key tenet of their faith.
Read the article by Ben Schneiders and Simone Fox Koob in The Sydney Morning Herald.