The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry (the ECAJ), the peak rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, has con­demned yesterday’s demon­stra­tion in Melbourne’s CBD by a group of neo-Nazis as “dis­grace­ful”, and called for tougher action by State, Ter­ri­to­ry and Fed­er­al gov­ern­ments against pub­lic dis­plays of Nazi sym­bols and ges­tures.

“Neo-Nazis remain denizens of the far fringes of soci­ety, but a weak response by gov­ern­ment has embold­ened them”, said ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim. “They are becom­ing increas­ing­ly brazen in stag­ing dis­plays of the kind we wit­nessed yes­ter­day out­side the Vic­to­ri­an par­lia­ment”.

“Thugs in black uni­form, hid­ing behind masks, per­form­ing Nazi salutes and spew­ing vio­lent and dehu­man­is­ing rhetoric against entire groups of peo­ple on the basis of their race, sex­u­al­i­ty or gen­der iden­ti­ty, should have no place any­where in Aus­tralia, let alone out­side a par­lia­ment, the sym­bol of democ­ra­cy”, he said.

Peter Wertheim also not­ed media reports of attempts by neo-Nazis to join the Aus­tralian defence force and state police forces in order to gain access to weapons and train­ing.

“We wel­come the Vic­to­ri­an government’s announce­ment that it will ban the Nazi salute in pub­lic, after it pre­vi­ous­ly out­lawed the dis­play of the Hak­enkreuz.  But we need some­thing more than a piece­meal approach, and a patch­work of State laws.  It’s well past time for Fed­er­al, State and Ter­ri­to­ry gov­ern­ments to co-ordi­nate their efforts through intel­li­gence shar­ing, tough uni­form leg­is­la­tion, and rig­or­ous police train­ing and enforce­ment to crack down on this grow­ing men­ace.”