Australia passes tough hate crime laws with mandatory jail time for Nazi salutes

Australia passed tough anti-hate crime laws, including mandatory minimum sentences for displaying hate symbols, in a bid to tackle a surge in antisemitism.

SYDNEY — Australia passed tough anti-hate crime laws on Thursday, including mandatory minimum sentences for terror offenses and displaying hate symbols, in a bid to tackle a recent surge in antisemitism.

The laws will impose minimum 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 offenses.

“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 offenses 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.

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.