Sydney-Australia approved the harsh laws of crime against hatred on Thursday, including minimum mandatory sentences for terrorist crimes and the sample of hate symbols, in an attempt to address a recent increase in anti-Semitism.
The laws will impose minimal jail sentences between 12 months for less serious hate crimes, such as giving Nazi greeting in public, and six years for those convicted of terrorist crimes.
“I want people who participate in anti -Semitism to be considered for accounts, be accused, imprisoned,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Sky News, who had initially opposed to minimum mandatory sentences for hate crimes.
The government’s hatred crime bill was introduced for the first time in Parliament last year, creating new crimes by 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.
The last months have seen an escalation of attacks against synagogues, buildings and cars of members of the Jewish community throughout the country, including the discovery of a caravan loaded with explosives with a list of Jewish objectives in Sydney.
Albanese has been criticized by the central opposition party on the right for being weak in crime and not addressing the increase in anti -Semitism.
The liberal-national coalition began to ask for mandatory minimal sentences that will be added to the hate crime bill last month.
The Minister of Interior Affairs, Tony Burke, who introduced the amendments that allowed the provisions on Wednesday night, said the changes were the “most difficult laws that Australia has had against hate crimes.”
The state of Nueva Wales del Sur, where most antiseemit attacks have taken place, said Wednesday that it would also strengthen their hate discourse laws to reflect those that are already in force in Western Australia and Victoria.
