Hate speech laws 'too late' as anti-Semitism continues to spread in ACT

The Canberra Times has been sent a photo of graffiti in Civic calling on Jews to leave, as evidence anti-Semitic hate speech continues in the ACT.

The graffiti, scrawled onto a wall in East Row earlier this month, comes after nearby Anita Gelato was targeted with anti-Israel stickers in November.

Australian Jewish Association president Robert Gregory, who took the photo while visiting Canberra on May 12, said it was no consolation the federal Attorney-General was progressing hate speech laws, when anti-Semitism had been allowed to spread for the past seven months.

"The Albanese government should have taken action immediately following the protest outside the Opera House on 9 October when it was clear anti-Semitism was spreading," Mr Gregory said.

"They have allowed the situation to deteriorate."

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus is consulting on a standalone hate speech bill while still seeking to include religious vilification prohibitions in the government's controversial Religious Discrimination Bill.

Mr Dreyfus said the Albanese government "is committed to promoting and supporting respect, acceptance and understanding across the Australian community".

"We are committed to protecting the community from those who promote extremism, hatred or seek to incite violence," he said in a statement.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said current federal criminal laws against racially motivated violence, incitement and vilification were "unfit for purpose".

"Time and again we have seen gross examples of anti-Jewish hate speech on our campuses and streets, and online, go unpunished," he said.

"No one has been prosecuted and there is no deterrence."

Mr Gregory said it was "not necessarily clear that there needs to be new laws" and that there needed to be "enforcement of the existing laws".

He acknowledged disagreement over the precise words chanted at the pro-Palestine Opera House protest, but said "either way, the conduct was unacceptable."

The ACT already has a ban on religious vilification as part of its Discrimination Act. It is unclear how frequently it is being enforced.

Federal Opposition frontbencher Dan Tehan said the Coalition would "work with the government in a bipartisan way" on laws to address religious vilification amid the "growing anti-Semitism, which is occurring at the moment".

"The government has been too late to this issue, far too late to this issue, and we need to take strong action," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on Monday condemned "confronting" levels of anti-Semitism in Australia after a Jewish school in Melbourne was vandalised with threatening graffiti.

"We need to be, as a country, mature enough to be able to have a debate about what's going on overseas, to allow people to have their completely legitimate right to express their views about what's happening overseas - but to do that in a way which does not challenge our own social cohesion," Mr Marles said.

Mr Marles visited Mount Scopus College after the school's fence was found sprayed with the words "Jew die", words he said "have no place in our society".

Speaking alongside Labor MP Josh Burns, a former student of the school, he said the number of incidents of extreme hate speech he had observed in recent months were higher "than any that I've seen during my lifetime".

Mr Burns said it was "just devastating to see the graffiti outside a place that was such a big part of my life". "We need ... to stand strong and to stand firm against anti-Semitism in all of its forms," he said.

A spokesperson for ACT Policing said it had "received a report of a Civic business having propaganda stickers relating to protests placed on them" in November.

"ACT Policing continues to monitor this type of behaviour and will prosecute as required those who are responsible for acts of public nuisance, vandalism or criminal damage," the statement said.

"We support a tolerant and inclusive society and encourage anyone who is the victim of racial vilification to report this crime to police."