NSW government: Huge fines for ‘deplorable’ signs among tough new nazi laws

Anti-Semitic extremists who display nazi symbols outside Jewish schools, a synagogue or a Holocaust museum face a $22,000 fine or two years in jail under new laws being introduced in NSW after an offensive banner was displayed outside Parliament House.

Attorney-General Michael Daley on Wednesday announced the Crimes Act 1900 will be amended to increase fines for those who indicated support for nazi ideology in public without a reasonable excuse.

Stronger penalties – up to two years’ imprisonment or a $22,000 fine – will apply to someone who commits this offence near a synagogue, Jewish school or the Sydney Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst, which commemorates those who died in or survived the Holocaust.

Under the changes being introduced into NSW Parliament today, someone who displays nazi symbols in public will otherwise face up to a year’s imprisonment or a maximum fine of $11,000.

Police will also have the powers to demand the removal of a suspected Nazi symbol under the Crimes and Summary Offences Amendment Bill 2025, which also introduces a $2,220 fine or three months’ jail for refusing to comply with orders.

The NSW government is introducing tougher penalties after neo-nazis displayed a banner saying - “Abolish the Jewish lobby” - outside State Parliament.

“The deplorable stunt we saw outside NSW Parliament has no place in our society. Nobody should be subject to this vile hatred because of their background or faith,” he said.

“We are giving police and the courts additional powers to hold nazi extremists to account for their abhorrent views.”

Matthew Gruter, a South African national who took part in that rally organised by the National Socialist Network, has had his work visa cancelled and is now in immigration detention awaiting deportation, three years after arriving in Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke had ordered the deportation instead of his department, limiting his grounds for appeal.

“If someone turns up for the purposes of just abusing people and wrecking the place and damaging the cohesion, you can ask them to leave,” he said on Tuesday.

Australia’s Jewish community has been terrorised and harassed since Hamas orchestrated the murder of 1200 people in southern Israel in October 2023, which included hundreds of pro-Palestinian and Islamist protesters rallying at the Opera House brandishing anti-Semitic signs two days after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Two men were also charged earlier this year with allegedly starting a fire at a synagogue at Newtown in Sydney’s inner west.