Australia passes tough hate crime laws with mandatory jail time for Nazi salutes

Australia passed tough anti-hate crime laws on Thursday, including mandatory minimum sentences for terror offences and displaying hate symbols, in a bid to tackle a recent surge in antisemitism.

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.

Recent months have seen an escalation of attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars of Jewish community members across the country, including the discovery of a caravan laden with explosives with a list of Jewish targets in Sydney.

Albanese has been criticised by the centre-right opposition party for being weak on crime and failing to address the rise in antisemitism.