By Henry Ea -
Police and courts in New South Wales will have sweeping new powers to prosecute extremists after legislation targeting Nazi conduct and symbolism passed state parliament on Thursday night.
The Crimes and Summary Offences Amendment Bill 2025 amends the Crimes Act 1900 to make it a criminal offence to publicly engage in conduct invoking Nazi imagery, chants or slogans. Those found guilty face up to a year in prison or a fine of $11,000.
Penalties double for offences committed in proximity to Jewish community sites. A person convicted of Nazi conduct near a synagogue, Jewish school, or the Sydney Jewish Museum can face two years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $22,000.
The Bill upgrades the seriousness of both new and existing Nazi-related offences, allowing them to be prosecuted on indictment in the District Court rather than handled as summary matters.
The legislation provides police with two significant new tools. Officers will be empowered to order the removal of suspected Nazi symbols, and can order a person to disclose their identity where doing so could reasonably assist an investigation into a Nazi symbol or conduct offence.
Attorney General Michael Daley said the reforms would give law enforcement and courts greater powers to crack down on extremists promoting Nazi chants and slogans.
The laws also settle a question that had previously left room for legal argument: offences can be charged even when they occur during an authorised public assembly. That includes the offence of inciting racial hatred, meaning a permit to protest will not provide cover for extremist conduct.
The legislation is the latest in a series of reforms the Minns Government has introduced in response to a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in NSW. In February 2025, Parliament passed a package of three bills creating new offences around racial and religious hatred, protecting places of worship, and increasing penalties for inciting racial hatred. Those laws were prompted by a wave of attacks on Jewish-owned businesses and synagogues in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in late 2024. The violence escalated further with a terror attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025, in which a father and son opened fire on the crowd, killing 15 people and wounding more than 40.
The immediate trigger for the Bill that passed last night was a neo-Nazi rally outside NSW Parliament in November 2025. Around 60 members of the National Socialist Network, dressed in black uniforms, gathered outside the building holding a banner reading “Abolish the Jewish Lobby” and chanting antisemitic slogans, including a Hitler Youth chant of “blood and honour.” The government introduced the new Bill within days.
Daley said the latest reforms sent a clear message. “These views are unacceptable and have no place in NSW, and we are holding those who espouse them to account,” he said.
