No arrests as police usher neo-Nazi march out of town

The lack of arrests at a white supremacist march in regional Victoria has been defended despite political and community leaders dubbing the group cowards.

Masked men dressed in black marched along Sturt Street in Ballarat on Sunday, chanting and holding a banner reading “Australia for the White Man”.

No arrests were made, with police cars seen travelling behind and in front of the group.

The demonstration was unplanned and police say they are investigating reports of a Nazi salute being performed.

A 15-year-old boy, who was not attached to the group, was spoken to by police but no charges have been laid.

Ballarat Mayor Des Hudson condemned the balaclava-veiled group of 20 or 30 men, calling them out as hateful “cowards” for hiding their faces.

Mr Hudson did not criticise police ushering the group down the road, especially given the ad-hoc nature of the demonstration.

“Everyone was caught by surprise,” he told AAP.

“At the time, escorting them through and getting them out of town has probably been a fairly effective strategy rather than taking them to task, which I probably think is what they were looking for.”

Victoria outlawed Nazi gestures and symbols in public from October, with fines of more than $23,000 or 12 months in prison.

The change was triggered by the same group performing the salute outside Victorian parliament in March.

When the ban was first announced, Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation director David Slucki said it would do little to eradicate Nazism.

Sunday’s march was entirely unsurprising and police could have used Victoria’s racial discrimination and incitement laws to arrest the group, Mr Slucki said.

“Maybe a situation like this calls for arrests because it feels like that becomes protected speech,” the Monash University associate professor told AAP.

While alarmed as a member of the Jewish community, Mr Slucki stressed the group were a “very tiny group of loudmouths”.

“I also caution a little restraint that we don’t look at these clowns and think that it’s 1938 Germany,” he said.

He questioned the feasibility of banning demonstrators from wearing facial coverings but flagged some members remained unidentified, potentially avoiding consequences from their employers.

“There’s protests and then there’s rallies that incite hatred and violence and a blanket ban on face coverings, I don’t know how you enforce something like that when you’re on the back end of a global pandemic,” he said.

Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said officers were limited in what they could do to counteract the protest.

“If it was up to us, it would be dead-set illegal,” he told Nine’s Today show.

“But it’s not – it’s up to the government.”

Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto said the opposition wanted law changes to give Victoria Police more powers so they don’t have to choose between making arrests and doing nothing.

He acknowledged protesters would find ways around continual bans on gestures but backed broader powers for police to identify those involved in demonstrations that incite violence or make others feel unsafe.

“We don’t want people to think that in the name of free speech, they can engage in violent acts while wearing a balaclava,” he said.

Premier Jacinta Allan condemned the “hateful” behaviour in the strongest possible terms.

“Ballarat is one of the birthplaces of our state’s rich multiculturalism – people came to the gold fields from every corner of the world in search of a better life,” she said in a statement on Monday.

Every Victorian deserves to live free from fear of racism and bigotry.

These disgraceful and cowardly acts have no place in Victoria.”

Local MP and federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King MP was similarly scathing.

“Bigotry, racism and Nazism are never welcome in Ballarat,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Ballarat Community Alliance said the “blow-ins” had come to co-opt the legacy of the Eureka Stockade, a rebellion of gold prospectors in the 1850s, on the anniversary of its end.

 

Seriously? #NationalSocialistNetwork making their presence felt in #Ballarat. SMH. pic.twitter.com/GGb5DvRQR3

— randal_m_smith (@randal_m_smith) December 3, 2023

Executive director of The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, Dr Colin Rubenstein, told J-Wire: “The march by neo-Nazis in Ballarat on Sunday, where they occupied city streets to brazenly display their hateful ideology, was deeply disturbing, and has no place in our democratic multicultural community.

Their motive was clearly to spread fear and division.

If Victorian laws were broken, then those involved in the march should feel the full brunt of the legal system.

Put simply to see neo-Nazis march in Ballarat is profoundly un-Australian and an affront to the victims of Nazism and to those who gave their lives fighting Nazism.

And if the police lacked the powers to prevent it, our laws should be toughened up to give them the powers they need to do so.”

e city was a proud multicultural one.

“We condemn this group of blow-ins and their message of hate,” the alliance said in a statement on Facebook.

“They have come to Ballarat to co-opt the Eureka legacy on the inclusive and peaceful commemoration of the anniversary of Eureka stockade.”

In October, Victoria made it illegal to intentionally display or perform a Nazi gesture or symbol in public.

The change was triggered a group performing the salute outside Victorian parliament earlier this year.

The ban applies to anything closely resembling a Nazi gesture or symbol but exceptions apply if either is displayed in good faith for a genuine academic, artistic, educational or scientific purpose.

AAP with J-Wire