Australia on Thursday passed anti-hate crime laws under which a Nazi salute in public, among other similar offences, will be punishable by a mandatory jail sentence.
The laws were passed in an effort to tackle a wave of high-profile antisemitic attacks targeting Jews in Australia in the wake of Israel's war on Gaza.
The laws will impose jail sentences between 12 months for less serious hate crimes, such as giving a Nazi salute in public, and six years for those found guilty of terrorism offences.
Recent months have seen an escalation of attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars of Jewish community members across the country, including the discovery of a caravan laden with explosives with a list of Jewish targets in Sydney.
"I want people who are engaged in antisemitism to be held to account, to be charged, to be incarcerated," prime minister Anthony Albanese, who had initially opposed mandatory minimum sentences for hate crimes, told Sky News.
The government's hate crimes bill was first introduced to parliament last year, creating new offences for threatening force or violence against people based on their race, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, political opinion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status.
Home minister Tony Burke, who introduced the amendments enabling the provisions late on Wednesday, said the changes were the toughest laws Australia has ever had against hate crimes.
Self-described Nazi Jacob Hersant was the first person to be convicted in the state of Victoria last year for performing the outlawed Nazi salute.
The 25-year-old gave the salute and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in front of news media cameras outside the Victoria County Court on 27 October 2023, after he had appeared on an unrelated charge. It was six days after the Victoria state government had made the salute illegal.
Three men were convicted in June 2024 of performing the Nazi salute during a soccer match in Sydney on 1 October 2022. New South Wales state had banned Nazi symbols in 2022. They were each fined and have appealed.
