Man charged over neo-Nazi stickers and salutes
A man accused of repeatedly performing Nazi salutes and putting up “propaganda-style” stickers on public buildings has been charged as Jewish leaders urge authorities to treat anti-Semitism as a public safety issue.
The 18-year-old was allegedly putting up Nationalist Socialist Network stickers at a Canberra shopping centre when he was confronted by a member of the public in October.
He then allegedly performed a Nazi salute before leaving the building.
The man also allegedly trespassed at the Australian National University multiple times in August to put up the stickers, and has been accused of performing another Nazi salute at a different shopping centre on December 12.
Police searched a Weston home on Christmas Eve and seized multiple devices and different types of stickers that read “white man fight back” and other racist slogans.
“There is no place for hate and threats of violence against the Australian community,” Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Stephen Nutt said.
“Anti-Semitism is a cancer; it is something that needs to be dealt with and removed from Australian society.”
The man has been charged with trespassing and defacing Commonwealth property, and performing Nazi salutes in public, which carries a punishment of up to five years in prison.
His arrest comes two months after a neo-Nazi assembly outside NSW parliament and less than a fortnight after Islamic State-inspired gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people.
Victorian police are still hunting for a suspect in a firebombing on Christmas after a car bearing a Hanukkah-related symbol was set alight outside a rabbi’s house in Melbourne in the early hours of December 25.
No one was inside the vehicle at the time, but the home’s occupants were evacuated as a precaution.
The attack was designed to frighten Jews for being visibly Jewish, Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said.
“After Bondi, and with the number of recent threats and investigations around the country, Australia has to treat anti-Semitism as a public safety issue, not a niche community concern,” he said.
A federal royal commission or an equivalent national inquiry with real powers into the Bondi attack and wider anti-Semitism crisis is the only way the nation can get the truth, accountability and lasting reform, Mr Leibler said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the apparent firebombing was “beyond comprehension”.
But he has resisted calling a royal commission in the wake of the Bondi mass shooting, instead backing a NSW inquiry and prioritising a faster but more limited review of intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Hate speech reforms and an overhaul of ministerial powers to cancel or reject visas for sowing division or potentially inciting violence are also on the agenda.
The Victorian government has promised to follow NSW’s footsteps to crack down on hate crimes and grant police the power to veto protests after designated terror attacks.
NSW Police late on Christmas Eve moved to ban protest rallies from key metropolitan areas in Sydney following the December 14 Bondi attack.
By: Kat Wong and William Ton/AAP
