Australia has cancelled the visa of a British national charged this month with displaying banned Nazi symbols, the country’s interior minister confirmed Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Canberra has vowed a broad crackdown on hate speech in the wake of a December 14 mass shooting targeting a Jewish festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, in which 15 people were killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government is pushing for new laws creating an aggravated offence for hate preaching, penalties for those deemed to have sought to radicalise minors and a new register of allegedly extremist groups that it will become illegal to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the 43-year-old UK citizen would lose his right to stay in the country after being charged with displaying the Nazi Hakenkreuz — also known as the swastika — and spouting antisemitic rhetoric on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I said, some time ago, that as far as freedom of speech was concerned, I had no time for hatred when it came to cancelling visas,” he told national broadcaster ABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Almost everyone on a visa is a good guest and welcome guest in our country,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But if someone comes here for the purposes of hate, they can leave.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Australian Federal Police this month said they had charged the man, who lived in the eastern state of Queensland, “with allegedly displaying prohibited Nazi symbols”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They accused him of using two X accounts to “display the Nazi Hakenkreuz and espouse a pro-Nazi ideology with a specific hatred of the Jewish community, and to advocate for violence towards this community”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia’s interior minister already has broad powers to cancel visas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, Burke cancelled the visa of South African national Matthew Gruter, who had been photographed at a neo-Nazi rally outside the New South Wales parliament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia has cancelled the visa of a British national charged this month with displaying banned Nazi symbols, the country’s interior minister confirmed Wednesday. Canberra has vowed a broad crackdown on hate speech in the wake of a December 14 mass shooting targeting a Jewish festival on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, in which 15 people were killed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":64662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[12983,12937],"class_list":["post-86326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","tag-antisemitism-2","tag-nazi-2"],"yoast_head":"\n