Liberals demand jail time over Nazi symbol displays

VICTORIAN police would be given extra powers to take down Nazi symbols under a proposal from the state opposition to ban them from being publicly displayed.

The Liberals also want people who publicly display Nazi symbols such as the swastika to face up to six months in jail, in line with existing serious vilification offences.

The opposition says the changes should be made through an amendment to Victoria’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, to tackle a growing trend of the symbols being used to inspire hatred.

If the Andrews government doesn’t make such an amendment itself, the Liberals will introduce their own private members bill.

The push comes after a household in the small Victorian town of Beulah drew attention in January for raising a Nazi flag featuring a swastika over their property.

“This swastika is the most hateful symbol … It is a symbol of mass murder,” Liberal MP David Southwick said at Melbourne’s Jewish Holocaust Centre yesterday.

A parliamentary committee is reviewing Victoria’s anti-vilification laws.

Victorian Equality Minister Martin Foley says the government is looking forward to seeing its recommendations and acting on them.

“Any expression of Nazi propaganda, whether it be swastikas and indeed any offensive, anti-semitic, racist paraphernalia, has no place in Victoria,” he said yesterday.

The Beulah community has stressed the local couple who flew the Nazi flag didn’t represent them.