PRESS RELEASE: TRADERS AND COLLECTORS OF HISTORY ARE NOT TERRORISTS

Review of the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Prohibited Hate Symbols and Other Measures) Bill 2023 creates new laws labelling genuine collectors and traders of history as terrorists.

The new proposed Bill banning the public display and trade of items from the Nazi era containing the Nazi Hakenkreuz (swastika) and SS runes is set to be passed in Federal Parliament this week, much to the angst of thousands of collectors and traders all over Australia.

It is claimed that the purpose of the Bill as drafted by the Attorney General’s office was to “… further strengthen Australia’s counter-terrorism legislative framework to respond to new and evolving national security threats, including the complex motivations, strategies and tactics of violent extremists…” and yet this Bill targets genuine collectors and traders of history and appears to have become more of an issue of anti-semitism rather than violent extremism or terrorism.

Collectors and traders of military history are not violent extremists or terrorists. These historical items, many of which were brought back from the war by our grandfathers and great grandfathers, are part of history and like it or not, cannot and should not be erased.

Collectors and traders are good people, many are former members of the Australian Defence Forces, lawyers, doctors, politicians, police officers, the list goes on. We have been campaigning against the amendments to the Bill for months, there were many submissions made to parliament including a petition with more than 1600 signatures.

We have contacted numerous politicians, many of us have been told that whilst they understand our plight and agree that it’s not right, they are instructed to “tow the party line”. Some politicians contacted via telephone or email have not even bothered to respond.

Unbelievably traders were not represented at the public hearings and in fact the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security denied me the opportunity to attend the hearings to represent traders. The Advisory Report under the Consultation Section clause 2.4 states “…Representatives of traders were not consulted in relation to the Bill…” This begs the question, how can this happen?

There will be no buy back, there will be no financial compensation. Instead, the Committee recommended that the Bill be amended so that the offence provisions for the trading of items bearing a prohibited symbol do not come into force for a period of 6-12 months, so that collectors have a window in which to dispose of part or all of their collections if they so wish.
Unfortunately, it appears this will not occur. Senator Zoe Daniel in her Second Reading Speech said “…I’m also pleased that the legislation will ban trade in the outlawed Nazi symbols immediately, rather than being delayed by six to 12 months to give collectors a chance to dispose of those items. Those in possession of those items should have seen this coming, and I see no reason for a substantive delay…”

Let me say this to Senator Daniel, no we did not see this coming, we believed that as we are not criminals and we have collected and traded in history for more than 50 years, this unconscionable Bill would not pass. We expected our politicians to listen to our plight and go back to the table for further consultation with a fair and reasonable solution. The thought of the Australian Government passing a Bill that would make law abiding citizens terrorists, just by a vote is astonishing.

We all thought we lived in a democracy, but this is proof that Australia is becoming less and less democratic as time goes on.

The trade of military history is worldwide, nowhere else in the world has banned the trade of these items, some of the biggest traders in WWII German military history are of the Jewish faith. Yes, cover the swastika and the SS runes, but ban it altogether and charge traders as terrorists? What have we become?

If traders and collectors of military history can be classed as terrorists by a vote of parliament without consultation, what is next?