Amid the political contradiction that has formed Australia’s muddled response to growing Islamist unrest across the world and the upswing of extreme left and right wing anarchy since the downfall of Donald Trump in 2020, a strong firming of its national anti-terror infrastructure became law yesterday.

The Australian Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Prohibited Hate Symbols and Other Measures) Bill 2023 sought to reinforce a uniquely Australian value called “mateship”—a colloquialism that roughly translates as freedom from fear.

Its assent now changes the discourse on the street. It will curtail the activity of mobs who have pursued grift rallying for the cause of antisemitism, islamophobia and against the multicultural fabric that has shaped this country since the late 1960s. It modifies Australia’s Crimes Act 1914 and Criminal Code Act 1995 with the specific purpose of criminalising the “public display and trading of the prohibited Nazi and Islamic State symbols”.

Note the latter.

This legislation is not merely aimed at the multitude of wannabe gangs who throw Nazi salutes (also illegal across Australia). These amendments move beyond the fringe of Neo-Nazism and into the mainstream psychosis of Islamist Extremism (aka “Islamism”—note the difference to “Islam”, a peaceful religion), that must equally be quashed with every societal effort.

Hence its enabling material read that: “Schedule 1 of the bill makes it a criminal offence to publicly display prohibited symbols—the Nazi hakenkreuz, the Nazi double sig rune, and the Islamic State flag—and trade items bearing these symbols”.

As of yesterday then, the Pro-Hamas mob can no longer rally with, sell or distribute any material that links or suggests a tie to Islamism meaning: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or ISIS.

Further, no one can now publicly champion Neo Nazism or Islamism.

In other words, chanting or placarding slogans for “intifada”, a new “Holocaust”, “another October 7” and the phrase “river to the sea” are now suspect. Equally it is illegal to drive recruitment or suggest joining Australia’s proscribed terror organisations including Hamas.

Declaring support for Hamas is over. Praising October 7 2023 is officially un-Australian.

It mirrors legislation in Europe. As the bill made clear, Australia intended to: “Introduce new offences relating to extremist or terrorist behaviour” and “expand the scope of the offence of advocating terrorism to include instructing on or praising a terrorist act”.

It now has. And it is now up to the Australian Federal Police and supporting state jurisdictions, along with Homeland Security, to remove religious and ethnic fear once again from the public view.

What is certain is that schools and tertiary educational facilities will be changing their ways. These measures exist to root out hate and vilification from the classroom and campus too. Principals, administrators, teachers—and for that matter all employers in their workplaces—are on notice.

It equally puts in place the rhetoric and marketing of political aspirants.

In announcing the commencement of these new laws, Australia’s attorney general Mark Dreyfus said:

“There is no place in Australia for acts and symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust and terrorist acts”.

It is as simple as that.

Nonetheless, no law is useful without enforcement.

© 2024 Adam Parker.

Picture credit: The offical flag of Afghanistan’s Taliban. It shows the Shahadah or the statement of Islamic faith. As the Taliban is no longer a proscribed terror organisation in Australia, this flag and its symbology are now technically legal. Yet, the Shahadah is also frequently used as the flag of “jihad”—the Islamist war against non-believers. Its public display outside the Taliban government context then or with any suggestion of a jihadist cause such as Hamas in Gaza—is now illegal in Australia. Courtesy Voice of America, attributed AFP September 2021. Public domain.