Legislation banning the Nazi salute in Victoria will be fast-tracked in state parliament but it will still be months before it comes into effect.
Victorian Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes on Monday confirmed the government would expand current legislation banning the Nazi swastika to include the salute.
It comes after National Socialist Movement members repeatedly performed the salute on the steps of the Victorian parliament on Saturday at an anti-transgender rights rally.
Three people were arrested, including a 22-year-old Point Cook man for allegedly putting a female officer in a headlock and taking her to the ground and a 23-year-old Thornbury woman for allegedly slapping a police officer on the neck.
Both are expected to be charged with numerous offences including assaulting police. The two officers were uninjured.
Ms Symes described the behaviour as disgraceful and cowardly, noting the salute was being used to incite hatred.
She said the expanded legislation would ensure Victorians feel safe, welcome and included.
“We’ll look at how this can be done carefully, with considered consultation with a variety of groups and will have more to say on the details of this legislation as we undertake that,” Ms Symes said in a statement on Monday.
Opposition leader John Pesutto said the opposition would work constructively with the government if it moved to ban the Nazi salute.
“We support free speech but every sensible and reasonable person will know there have to be some limits on free speech,” he told ABC News Breakfast on Monday.
“People who engage in actions and gestures which incite hate and violence will never be acceptable in our state.”
Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich welcomed the ban, saying a terrible wrong has been made right.
“There is no perfect cure for the disease of extremism but this law is a first good step,” he said in a statement.
“Now law enforcement will have the tools they have been asking for.”
In December last year, Victoria became the first state to ban the Nazi swastika.
It is now a criminal offence to display the symbol in public, with those who do to face penalties of up to nearly $22,000, 12 months in jail or both.
– AAP
