“We don’t seek to divide,we seek to unify through this action in parliament today,” he said. “We seek to work together to send a very clear message,particularly to young Australians ... who may be influenced online.”
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Leeser urged the government to support the bill,labelling the rally attendees cowards “with steroid arms and stunted minds”.
“Part of what we saw in Melbourne on Saturday is … part of a trend across our country,” he said.
“The director-general of security[Mike Burgess] has spoken about thegrowth of grievance-motivated violent extremism. 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.
“There must be no place in Australia for Nazi-style flags,uniforms,salutes and boycotts. Because they are the means by which this sickness seeks to perpetuate and promote itself. Such actions should be and must be a crime.”
However,parliament voted down the opposition’s move,73 votes to 70. Greens leader Adam Bandt and several teal independents,including Zali Steggall,Allegra Spender and Dr Monique Ryan,sided with the Coalition.
Leader of the House Tony Burke earlier said the government wouldn’t support the push to ban Nazi symbols because it hadn’t seen the legislation,let alone had the chance to put it to cabinet or the caucus.
Burke said no government in the history of the federation would have suspended normal parliamentary business to vote on a bill in such a way.
“That doesn’t go against the principle in the private member’s bill in any way,” he said,adding he didn’t want anyone to interpret the division in the house as support for Nazi symbols by some.
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“They are symbols that are horrific … symbols can be bullets,words can be bullets,and the horror of that salute is,in real terms,an act of violence in itself,” he said.
“Those are views that are shared around this room,and so there are particular reasons why no government has ever agreed to a private members bill in the form that it is here.”
A spokesperson for Dreyfus said the Attorney-General’s Department had been “considering matters relating to the prohibition of Nazi symbols for some months” but declined to say more.
Burke referred to attempts by the Coalition over the past decade to amend racial discrimination laws. The Abbott government in 2014backed down from plans to wind back section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act,which makes it illegal to offend,insult,humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people because of their race or ethnicity.
Deakin University political sociologist Josh Roose said if Nazi salutes and symbolism was banned,extremists would come up with “some other form of offensive gesture or symbolism”,adding some people were talking about a broader law prohibiting the glorification of the Nazi regime or Hitler.
“That’s going to be very difficult to police,” he said.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weeklyInside Politics newsletter here.