Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is an affirmation of Australian values—values that respect the equality of Australians from all races, beliefs and backgrounds; the dignity of people with disabilities; the right to freedom of speech; our shared fundamental human dignity that the ideology of Nazism stands against. Nazism today stands against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disabilities, Jewish Australians, LGBTI Australians and any Australian with a different political view than their own. This bill affirms our values as Australians.

It honours the sacrifices made by Australians made during the Second World War, an entire generation of Australians under the leadership of Robert Menzies, Arthur Fadden, John Curtin and Ben Chifley that stood together to oppose Nazism. Most Australians have a story of an ancestor or ancestors who stood for freedom when it truly mattered. I think of my grandfather, a good man whose ambition was nothing more than to raise a family and run a hardware store. He signed up to defend Australia and stand against Hitler's sick racial ideology and the ideology of imperial Japan. My grandfather paid a terrible price for those convictions, enduring the worst deprivations of the Changi prisoner-of-war camp and the horrific Thai-Burma Railway. Such was the cost for standing against evil. It was a cost paid by nearly 40,000 Australians who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II, as well as a million Australians who served, the families they loved and a generation whose sacrifice was nothing less than complete. With this bill we honour their memory.

I had hoped, and the Leader of the Opposition had hoped, when we worked together on drafting this bill, that it could be another affirming moment of our shared commitment to our great Australian values—values of respect, acceptance and good-heartedness and a fierce determination to stand against an ideology of genocide and death. It's the thing we do most days in this parliament. I'm proud of the work I've done with the member for Wentworth and the member for Macnamara, co-chairing the Parliamentary Friends of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. But sadly on this bill we've had only politics. The government blocked debate on this matter in this House almost two months ago. The government recommended through the Senate committee process that an identical bill be voted down, and the government has offered no alternative bill or process. Despite saying two months ago that the government was working on a bill to this effect, where is this bill today?

In the depths of my being I oppose hate speech, racism and anti-Semitism. Because these things are so despicable, we should never throw around accusations about them lightly. It's one of the reasons the Jewish community so strongly opposes casual references to the Holocaust, because you can't be casual about the greatest crime in human history. Yet two months ago the Attorney-General accused the opposition leader, a man who has been our Home Affairs minister and our Minister for Defence, of giving encouragement to neo-Nazis. He accused a man who is not antisemitic of being an antisemite. He accused a party that is not antisemitic of being antisemitic. The Attorney-General should've known better. We were assured then by the Leader of the House, who I believe spoke genuinely, that the government would do something. Instead, two months later we have nothing.

This bill is more than an affirmation of who we are, though affirmations like this are sometimes needed. This bill is more than that. This bill will make Australians safer. The director-general of ASIO, Mike Burgess, warned in his latest annual threat assessment about the increase in grievance based violent extremism and an increase in the radicalisation of young Australians. He said:

As a nation, we need to reflect on why some teenagers are hanging Nazi flags and portraits of the Christchurch killer on their bedroom walls, and why others are sharing beheading videos. And just as importantly, we must reflect on what we can do about it.

ASIO backed these words up with a submission to the Senate committee on this bill. They said the Criminal Code Amendment (Prohibition of Nazi Symbols) Bill would assist law enforcement in early intervention. Let me read from the committee's report:

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) explained that Nazi symbols play a significant role among nationalist and racist violent extremist groups, both by signalling ideology and in-group belonging, as well as provoking or intimidating ideological opponents. ASIO further explained that symbols are:

… an effective propaganda tool because they are easy to remember and understand. They can transcend language, cultural, and ethnic divides; creating, distributing, and understanding them is not limited to a select few or one cultural or language group.

The report also noted that ASIO contended that symbols served to promote cohesion among some nationalist and racist extremist groups, and provoke their opponents:

Nationalist and Racist Violent Extremists adopt specific imagery and terminology to signal their ideology, build in-group belonging between adherents, and provoke or intimidate ideological opponents.

ASIO made it very clear in its submission to the committee:

ASIO is aware that nationalist and racist groups use hate speech and extremist insignia in their recruitment and profile raising. Globally, there can be links between hate speech and hate motivated crimes, including terrorism. The possession of extremist material has featured in many prosecutions of terrorist offences.

Symbols matter. The Sydney Jewish Museum, quoting British novelist Dion Fortune, made the observation:

"Symbols are to the mind what tools are to the hand". We must deny these extremists access to such symbols—symbols they use to create fear, spread hate and capture new recruits.

Don't think that this is not happening here, right now. Our country is dealing with this today. Look at the front page of this week's Australian Jewish News, where small groups of radicals, not the mainstream in any way, are seeking to conflate the work that I, Mark Liebler and other prominent Jewish Australians have done on the Voice with their anti-Semitic tropes. These small evil groups will seek to exploit our legitimate debate we have on any issue when they see an opening.

I believe this bill has a part to play in our work to keep all Australians safe. Let me turn to what this bill will do. This bill introduces an amendment to the criminal code relating to the prohibition of Nazi symbols. This bill does not make the display of Nazi symbols and the use of explicit Nazi actions, such as the Nazi salute, illegal. A Nazi symbol is a symbol or action commonly associated with the Nazi party and would include the Nazi swastika, Nazi salute, Nazi uniforms, and other types of symbols identified in the ECAJ anti-Semitism report. It would be an offence to display such a symbol without reasonable excuse. The penalty is 100 penalty units or 12 months in imprisonment.

To avoid doubt, the display of a swastika in connection to Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism does not constitute the display of a Nazi symbol. It should be noted that, in the same way the Nazis looted the belongings of millions, they also misappropriated the legitimate symbols from these faiths. Nothing we seek to do is about perpetuating this misappropriation. And to ensure this prohibition doesn't interfere with the vital work of teaching young people about the evils of the past, there are limitations and carve-outs in terms of genuine educational, scientific and artistic purposes such as films and documentaries, and it doesn't apply to journalism or where symbols are displayed for another purpose in the public interest.

I want to recognise the work undertaken by state governments already. In 2022, New South Wales unanimously passed the Crimes Amendment (Prohibition on Display of Nazi Symbols) Act 2022. In Victoria, the Summary Offences Amendment (Nazi Symbol Prohibition) Act 2022 makes it an offence to intentionally display in public the Nazi swastika. I note that Tasmania is examining how a ban on Nazi salutes can be incorporated into the Police Offences Amendment (Nazi Symbol Prohibition) Bill 2023 before that parliament. I also recognise that Queensland and South Australia have foreshadowed protections against the display of Nazi symbols.

There is no moral ambiguity when it comes to Nazi displays, demonstrations and actions. This bill will ensure there will be no legal ambiguity when it comes to Nazi displays, demonstrations and actions either. Nazism is not just another political viewpoint; it's an evil, an evil whose fundamental tenet is the racial superiority of one group of people over another. Churchill called the ideology of Nazism 'the perverted science'. But it was not a myth without consequence. Six million Jews were murdered, a figure that represented two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe in its name. It also resulted in the murder of 1.6 million Polish citizens, 5.7 million Soviet citizens, three million Soviet prisoners of war, 312,000 Serbs, 220,000 Roma, 250,000 people with intellectual disabilities living in institutions, 70,000 so-called 'asocial', 1,900 Jehovah's Witnesses, and thousands and thousands of homosexuals and political prisoners.

It was industrial-scale murder the likes of which the world has ever seen. It was an ideology of hate that experimented on children, buried people alive, and set furnaces ablaze with the bodies of millions of men, women and children. Every one of them had a name. Every one of them was loved. Every one of them carried within them the essence of human dignity. Every one of them had dreams and aspirations which, in their totality, could brighten the night sky. I have met Holocaust survivors who have withstood unimaginable night terrors and witnessed the unimaginable. I honour them all and those who fought against Hitler and his crimes. I believe there is broad community and political support for this bill.

Citizenship is a moral responsibility; it's a call to participate, to play our part and do our duty not only to our country, but to each other. In March, when we first sought to have this bill debated, I spoke of Katie Popp, a German Australian Catholic who, in a moment of choosing, saved my family in the 1930s. Katie's decision not to turn a blind eye, not to be a bystander because of the risk to herself but to risk all for what is right, is an example that lives through time. It's an example that her generation has left to us. That is what this bill is all about. and I commend the bill to this House.

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