“The Australian Federal Police came back to me with recommendations that I then forwarded some weeks ago, only a couple of weeks ago, to the attorney-general,” he said.
“Effectively, we will be making it easier for the Australian Federal Police to successfully bring charges against those who use and display hate symbols. We’ll also be making changes to the Customs Act so that, as well as it being unlawful for them to be held in Australia, it is easier for them to be intercepted at the border if they’re seen there.”
The British national whose visa was cancelled this month was charged under existing laws. The AFP announced it had charged him on December 8 after a week-long enforcement blitz targeting far-right paraphernalia and other illegal symbols, which also led to charges against a 25-year-old Sydney man and 21-year-old Brisbane man.
The British man is alleged to have used two X accounts to display the Nazi swastika and “espouse a pro-Nazi ideology with a specific hatred of the Jewish community, and to advocate for violence towards this community,” police said earlier this month.
The AFP also executed a search warrant at his house in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, and seized several weapons, including swords emblazoned with swastika symbology, axes and knives. He was charged with three counts of displaying prohibited Nazi symbols and one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.
Burke on Tuesday said the government was looking at “both the method and the motivation” behind the Bondi terror attack as it fast-tracked policies that will take a harder line on guns as well as hate speech.
On guns, Burke said a senior group of officials from the home affairs, attorney-general, police and justice portfolios had met on Monday with state and territory premiers’ departments, to start implementing gun control measures agreed to by national cabinet after the Bondi massacre.
“We’ll now be drafting instructions for the Commonwealth components of legislative changes. Some of those drafting instructions will be issued tomorrow. Others will be immediately after Christmas,” he said.
”The Hate Crimes Database and the National Firearms Register are both being accelerated to be able to provide the best possible information both to the public generally and to the authorities that issue gun licences.“
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The first stage of a new hate crimes database – which was announced by national cabinet in January after antisemitic attacks last summer – will be launched on Wednesday, providing national information about people charged with offences under hate crimes legislation through the Australian Insitute of Criminology’s website.
On hate speech, Burke said leadership in the Jewish community was being consulted on new draft laws. “People should be in no doubt about where the target is as this drafting is done,” he said.
“We want to make sure that those hate preachers who have managed to keep themselves just on the legal side of Australian law … will become criminal.”
As part of this, radical organisations such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and neo-Nazi groups will be listed under a new regime that stops them from operating in Australia.
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