Mandatory jail term for Nazi salute under new hate crime rules in Australia Australia on Thursday passed anti-hate crime laws under which a Nazi salute in public, among other similar offences, will be punishable by a mandatory jail sentence.
The laws will impose jail sentences between 12 months for less serious hate crimes, such as giving a Nazi salute in public, and six years for those found guilty of terrorism offences.
The government's hate crimes bill was first introduced to parliament last year, creating new offences for 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.
"I want people who are engaged in antisemitism to be held to account, to be charged, to be incarcerated," prime minister Anthony Albanese, who had initially opposed mandatory minimum sentences for hate crimes, told Sky News.
Self-described Nazi Jacob Hersant was the first person to be convicted in the state of Victoria last year for performing the outlawed Nazi salute.
