Australia moves to ban display and trade of Nazi symbols

The Australian government will move to ban the public display and sale of Nazi symbols and paraphernalia, Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Thursday.

Dreyfus said he would introduce a bill to the government next week, seeking to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika - also known as the Hakenkreuz - and the SS Schutzstaffel symbol, he told Australian broadcaster ABC.

The trade of any items that bare the symbols will also be banned.

"We are going to send a message that this spreading of hatred and violence and anti-Semitism has got no place in Australia," he said.

"We need to send a message that there is no place in Australia for this kind of behaviour. There is no place in Australia for people who want to glorify the horrors of the Holocaust."

The display and use of the swastika, a religious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, would be exempt from the ban. The public display for academic, educational, artistic, literary, journalistic or scientific purposes would also be exempt.

The Nazi salute would not be included in the ban, Dreyfus said. Instead, it would be up to individual states to make that decision.

Last year, Victoria became the first Australian state to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika.

In March the state expanded the legislation to include the Nazi salute following clashes between transgender rights protesters and neo-Nazis in Melbourne.