Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the request of the Chair of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Senator Green, I table a statement relating to the committee's inquiry on the Criminal Code Amendment (Prohibition of Nazi Symbols) Bill 2023.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I think it's very important that we actually have on the record of Hansard the document that has been tabled. I think it's of great significance to the Serbian community in Australia. As the Deputy Chair of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, I wish to read onto the record of Hansard the statement, because this is a very important issue for that community. The statement reads:

In May 2023, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee (the committee) tabled its report on the Criminal Code Amendment (Prohibition of Nazi Symbols) Bill 2023.

Shortly after tabling its report, the committee received correspondence from the Serbian Council of Australia (SCofA). SCofA raised concerns about a quote at paragraph 2.8 of the report, attributed to the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS), in which the 'Serbian 3-finger salute' was described as a Nazi symbol.

In its correspondence to the committee, SCofA explained that:

The reference to the 'Serbian 3-finger salute' as a Nazi salute is offensive to the entire Australian Serbian community and is a historically wrong, and outrageous mischaracterisation of the symbol. The three fingers that Serbian Orthodox Christians display symbolises 'the father, the son and the Holy Spirit' (the Holy Trinity). The Serbian three finger salute is a spiritual symbol and does not have any political connotations.

On 23 June 2023, the AJDS issued the following apology and clarification on its website:

The Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS) apologises to the Serbian Council of Australia and the Serbian community for mischaracterising the religiously-based "three-finger salute". For Serbian Orthodox Christians the fingers symbolise 'the father, the son and the Holy Spirit' (the Trinity) and we recognise its religious significance to Serbs.

In making its submission to the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Prohibition of Nazi Symbols Bills 2023, the AJDS should have explicitly distinguished between the Serbian Orthodox three-finger symbol that has first and foremost deep religious and national meaning, and its misappropriation as a racist, supremacist gesture, as was used by the Croatian Ustasha Regime to mock its religious significance during their extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma during WWII.

The committee has issued this statement in the hopes of clarifying the use and importance of the Serbian 3-fingered salute as a religious symbol, and its misappropriation as a Nazi symbol.

Question agreed to.