Mark Dreyfus, Attorney-General of Australia: We do need to act we will not tolerate this kind of conduct.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Anti-Defamation Council Chair: Today is a day for the history books.
Dr Josh Roose, Associate Professor of Politics, Deakin University: It’s about hate and hate has no place in Australia.
Amelia Moseley, Reporter: What are all of those people talking about? Well, Nazi symbols and the federal government's plan to ban them from public display and from being sold online across Australia.
Mark Dreyfus: I find it almost unthinkable that this legislation is even necessary. Thousands of Australians fought and died to defeat this evil and thousands more found refuge in our country from the evils of the Holocaust.
Symbols like the Hakenkreuz, often called the Swastika, and the Double Sig Rune or Schutzstaffel insignia became some of the most recognisable and most hateful symbols in the world during the 20th century. You might already know that's because they represented Adolf Hitler and members of his Nazi party during World War Two, including the Schutzstaffel, or SS, the Nazi organisation that carried out some of the worst atrocities, especially against Jewish people.
Dr Josh Roose: So there's this general idea that emerged out of, in particular, 1930s era Germany. It’s this idea of a master race that somehow, in some way, shape, or form, white people were superior to others, and everyone else should be eradicated.
Dr Dvir Abramovich: So it's important to remember what the Nazi swastika, the SS symbol, and other emblems of the Third Reich represent. They represent the extermination of 6 million Jews and millions of others. They represent the gassing of 1.1 million children and millions of others in the gas chambers. The Holocaust is history's worst and darkest chapter.
The symbols still represent all of the hate, terror, suffering and cruelty of that time, which is why they're now being used around the world by a small minority of people in hate groups with extreme views. They're often referred to as far right, white supremacists or Neo Nazis. They're anti-semitic, which means they're hostile to or prejudiced against Jewish people. But experts say that's not all.
Dr Dvir Abramovich: Those people who wave the Nazi flag, or that possess those symbols, believe in an Australia without Jews, without Muslims, without members of the LGBTQ+ community, without Asian Australians, without African Australians, without First Peoples.
Dr Josh Roose: So they’re anti-migration, they don't like people coming in, particularly from developing countries, they're anti-women (they believe that women belong in the home), they're inherently anti-science, they're inherently anti-government and anti-democracy. And so they've been particularly active in recent years, not only online, but more recently with protests.
The groups have crashed a few protests this year in Sydney and even outside Parliament House in Melbourne. Far Right extremists are also seen as a threat to national security because they've been known to carry out racist violent acts, including terrorist attacks like the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 that killed 51 people.
Josh, why are we hearing and seeing more about these groups over the past few years?
Dr Josh Roose: They've always been there, but there's been an evolution over the last 10 years, in particular, and what we saw was the emergence of President Donald Trump, in particular, really gave a lot of momentum.
Donald Trump, Former President of the United States: We're gonna walk down to the Capitol!
Dr Josh Roose: They all of a sudden had a bit of tacit support at that higher level. So that's one dimension. Historically, when there's some form of economic crisis, people are drawn to extremist movements. And in Australia, over the last decade, decade and a half, we've seen the Global Financial Crisis. We've seen the impact of COVID, we've seen thecost-of-livingg crisis now where people can no longer buy a house. And so there's a lot of frustration, anxiety and anger out there amongst a section of the population.
Now, the proposed change to this federal law will mean up to 12 months in jail for anyone that displays or trades items with Nazi and SS symbols on them, in public or online, including on flags, armbands, T shirts, and even old war memorabilia.
Dr Josh Roose: The whole point of these symbols is to polarise, it's to pull our community apart. We're preventing them from using it to recruit and from intimidating and inspiring fear and that keeps our community safer, and we don't think it is moral for businesses to make money from the suffering and the misery and the deaths of millions.
The ban is something Dr. Abramovich has been campaigning for the past six years.
Dr Dvir Abramovich: It is a booming tribute to those brave diggers who, during the Second World War, sacrificed their lives. It's also of course, a tribute to the six million Jews and millions of others that were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. And of course, it's paying our respects to the Holocaust survivors who escaped Europe and rebuilt their lives here.
In some states and territories, Nazi symbols are already banned, but the federal law will make it the same across Australia. But the ban won't include the Nazi salute, which was used to pledge allegiance to Hitler during the war. Instead, that will be up to states and territories to police, which some are already working on. Also, some religious groups will be partly exempt, and that's because the swastika has religious significance as a symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Even the word itself means wellbeing, prosperity, and good fortune, all long before the symbol was appropriated by the Nazis. And there will be other exemptions like using the symbols for artistic reasons, like in movies or TV shows, or in museums, for education, or journalism purposes like this story. While many people say the ban is a good move, some say they'd like it to cover more ground, like the salute, and even other newer symbols of hate. While others say it's important to also tackle the rise of hate groups, especially online.
Dr Josh Roose: What they're trying to do is target and gain new recruits, in particular they’re moving into gaming forums, groups like Telegram, but even TikTok and various forms of other social media. It's not a coming in and attempting to just tell someone to “come and join us, we're a bunch of Nazis!” It doesn't work like that. What they do is they groom. I'm optimistic that young people will hold those conversations or confront it where they see it and support each other if they do see their schoolmates being dragged into some of this material.
Dr Dvir Abramovich: Anyone who's ever chosen to join those groups, in the end realised that it was a big mistake, and sometimes it is too late because they will get arrested, they will be jailed, and they will be taken down a very dangerous and a very, very toxic pathway.
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