Australia has announced it will introduce a national ban on swastikas and other Nazi symbols in an effort to crack down on increasingly common far-right groups and activities.

Public displays of the swastika and other symbols such as SS symbols, flags, armbands, T-shirts and the publication of symbols online promoting Nazi ideology, will be punishable by up to a year in prison. The Nazi salute, however, is not covered by the legislation and is left to state authorities to police.

While most Australian states already have laws in place that ban such material, the federal law, which will be brought to Parliament next week, would extend the ban to every part of the country and would also ban the trade of it.

The law makes an exception to public displays of Nazi symbols for academic, educational, artistic, literary, scientific or journalistic purposes. It will also not affect the use of the swastika for people observing Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus told Nine Network television: “There’s been a rise in this kind of violent far right activity. We think it’s time for there to be a federal law which I’ll be bringing to the Parliament next week.

"There is no place in Australia for symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust.”

Mark Dreyfus

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Dreyfus, who is Jewish, added: We will no longer allow people to profit from the display and sale of items which celebrate the Nazis.

“We’ve got responsibility for import and export. We want to see an end to trading in this kind of memorabilia or any items which bear those Nazi symbols, there’s no place in Australia for spreading of hatred and violence.”

Although the number of neo-Nazis in the country was “small”, Australia’s Security Intelligence Organization has been raising concerns about increased activity in the last three years.

The move comes amid a surge in far-right activity.

Security Intelligence Organisation Director General Mike Burgess warned last month that the country’s extremist far-right were becoming “emboldened”.

He said: "We have seen a rise in people drawn to this ideology, for reasons we don't fully understand.”

In March, neo-Nazis appeared at a Melbourne rally and performed Nazi salutes on the steps to the Victorian Parliament.

It is not yet clear whether the proposed legislation will pass or take effect. Australia’s Labor Party currently controls the House of Representatives but not the Senate.