The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed that fourteen people are being investigated .
Speaking against Senate estimates, AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney spoke about the ongoing investigation into 14 people under investigation for displaying Hezbollah flags at a 'National Day of Action for Gaza' meeting in Melbourne in September.
The AFP's Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Command in Victoria launched Operation ARDVARNA in October to investigate the display of the banned symbols.
McCartney said investigators spent about 1,100 hours investigating the case, including reviewing 90 hours of CCTV and police body camera footage.
The AFP seized mobile phones as well as an item of clothing bearing a symbol of a banned terrorist organisation.
Omar Hassan, organizer of the Melbourne rally, said only a very small group involved in the rally flew the Hezbollah flag.
“Honestly, as a Lebanese, it feels like there is more passion and interest from the media and politicians for some pieces of cloth than for the dead bodies of Arab men, women and children,” he said.
McCartney said the AFP is also “examining whether discourse relating to deceased terrorists or events in the Middle East has reached the threshold of calling for violence against groups or advocating terrorism”.
What are the laws that ban terrorist and hate symbols?
In January, federal legislation went into effect banning the Nazi salute or Nazi hate symbols.
The new laws also include glorifying or praising acts of terror by displaying symbols used by organizations designated as terrorist organizations by the Australian government – including Hezbollah, which was listed in 2021.
Dr. Josh Roose, associate professor of politics at Deakin University, told SBS News that there is a “continuum” between hate and terror symbols, which made it logical to bundle both in the same legislation.
“It could be argued that hate and terror fall pretty much on the same spectrum of abhorrent behavior, antisocial behavior and also threatening behavior,” Roose said.
The penalty for displaying a prohibited symbol can be up to twelve months in prison.
Federal laws have long existed to protect people from racial slurs, which include defaming, insulting, humiliating, or intimidating people based on their race, color, national, or ethnic origin.
Dr. However, Nicole Shackleton, a socio-legal researcher from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, told SBS News that the new changes to federal counter-terrorism laws covered gaps previously missing in the area of advocating or expressing support for terrorist actions.
“Advocating terrorist action has long been a crime in Australia, but this was a way for the government to go some way to clarifying its position around symbols and flags,” Shackleton said.
Before these laws, there were cases that caused outrage, including a Nazi flag displayed outside a house in north-west Victoria in 2020 that led to calls to strengthen the laws.
The chief executive of Yarriambiack Shire Council, where the flag was displayed, said at the time there was little the council could do about it other than ask residents to remove the flag.
While NSW and Victoria passed legislation banning Nazi symbols and gestures in 2022 and Tasmania followed suit in 2023, other states have bills before their parliaments. However, federal law allows the AFP to enforce the laws and monitor the use of terrorist or hate symbols.
When does a violation occur?
Merely displaying a prohibited symbol is not an offense.
To constitute a criminal offense, the display of a prohibited symbol must take place in circumstances that result in: spreading ideas based on racial superiority or hatred, inciting others to insult a person or group, humiliating or intimidate because of their race, or advocate hatred against any person or group because of, among other things, their race, religion or nationality.
Prohibited symbols may also be used for religious, academic, educational, artistic, literary or scientific purposes.
ASIO director general Mike Burgess said that while people waving Hezbollah flags may indicate they follow a violent ideology, “they may well be the actions of a misdirected individual who doesn't really know what he is doing”.
Have the laws been tested?
There were 113 reports relating to the display of banned hate symbols between January and October 2024, resulting in 49 further investigations by the joint counter-terrorism team.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett said 28 of these reports remain active, but no one has been charged since the hate symbol legislation came into effect.
However, several people have been found guilty of displaying prohibited symbols or gestures under state law, including Sydney restaurateur Alan Yazbek who pleaded guilty to displaying a Nazi symbol at a pro-Palestinian rally in late October.
Are there still gaps in the legislation?
Roose said there are still gaps in the law surrounding the sharing of hate or terrorist symbols online, as it is unclear whether this is a public space.
“That raises all kinds of questions about online hate, which we don't have nearly strong enough legislation to ban in this country.
“Ultimately, you could have Nazis here in Australia sharing hateful material, Nazi propaganda and flags and making hateful speech without being held to account.”
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