Hate speech laws would be unlikely to capture the neo-Nazis who disrupted the Anzac Day dawn service at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.
Sources across government, legal and advocacy bodies did not believe the booing would meet the criminal threshold under Victorian anti-vilification laws, including once they are expanded in September after being passed by the parliament this month.
Police take Jacob Hersant away from the Shrine of Remembrance on Friday. He will be charged at a later date.Credit: Getty Images
Convicted neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant led boos and heckling during Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country, shattering the pre-dawn hush at the service in a display that was condemned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, veterans’ groups and Aboriginal leaders.
Each time a speaker thanked the traditional owners, the small but vocal group jeered. Others in the crowd cheered and clapped the speakers as they tried to project their voices over the hecklers.
Hours later, a heckler shouted obscenities during a Welcome to Country at Perth’s dawn service in Kings Park. Jeers rang out as Noongar elder and former soldier Di Ryder took to the podium for the traditional welcome. The crowd quickly hushed the heckler.
Albanese said there was no place for the disruptive behaviour as he paid tribute to soldiers – including Indigenous Australians – who fought for their country.
“The disruption of Anzac Day is a disgraceful act and the people responsible must face the full force of the law,” Albanese said. “This was an act of low cowardice on a day when we honour courage.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton joined Albanese’s condemnation, saying on Channel Nine’s Today program that anyone who glorified Nazism was “mentally unwell” as he made a point of supporting Welcomes to Country on significant occasions despite previous Coalition criticism of how common they had become.
“Welcome to Country is an important part of official ceremonies, and it should be respected, and I don’t agree with the booing,” Dutton said on Friday. “We have a proud Indigenous heritage in this country, and we should be proud to celebrate it as part of today.”
Victoria Police confirmed a 26-year-old Kensington man was interviewed and released after the incident, and that he was expected to be charged on summons with offensive behaviour. Last year, Hersant became the first person in Victoria to be convicted for performing the Nazi salute.
Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown delivering the Welcome to Country at the dawn service.Credit: Getty Images
The summary offence carries a fine or jail term of two months, or up to six months for repeat offenders.
Dr Josh Roose, a Deakin University associate professor who studies political violence, could not say whether Friday’s disruption would be captured under the new anti-vilification laws, but said there was a case it should be.
“If you’re booing an Indigenous ceremony, one that’s based on healing and cohesion, then there’s a case you’re undermining that and vilifying on the basis of race,” Roose said.
Aunty Joy Murphy, a Wurundjeri elder who has long performed the Welcome to Country at Melbourne events, said the hecklers at the shrine would not deter her.
“It’d take more than that for me not to do the welcome,” she said. “It makes me want to hold my head up higher than ever. We know what it’s like to be insulted, and we have to stand strong and be brave. We’re proud to be who we are.”
Aunty Joy said the ceremony was particularly important on Anzac Day to recognise Indigenous soldiers like her father, Jarlo Wandoon, who fought for Australia.
She was supposed to perform the Welcome to Country ceremony at Friday night’s Melbourne Storm-Sydney Rabbitohs Anzac Day NRL clash at AAMI Park, but says the Storm cancelled the ceremony at the last minute, leaving Indigenous groups dumbfounded and distressed.
Performances from the Maori Ngā Mātai Pūrua and Djirri Djirri, a Wurundjeri female dance group, were planned too. But as other Indigenous performers rehearsed on the field, Aunty Joy was told the club’s board no longer wanted her to conduct the Welcome to Country. The two other First Nations groups refused to continue their performances as a result.
Aunty Joy Murphy giving a Welcome to Country at Marvel Stadium in 2023.Credit: Getty Images
She said no explanation was given to the Indigenous groups for the club’s initial cancellation, other than Storm chief executive Justin Rodski telling them it was a board decision.
She said the Storm then reversed its position, apologised and asked her to continue with her ceremony, but she refused.
“We would dearly love to be out there, but they’ve broken our hearts,” Aunty Joy said.
In a statement, Melbourne Storm said: “There was a miscommunication of expectations regarding the use Welcome to Country at Melbourne Storm events throughout the year. We acknowledge and accept the timing and miscommunication was not ideal and we have spoken to the groups concerned this afternoon.”
Roose said Friday’s Shrine of Remembrance intrusion was clearly planned and had been foreshadowed online.
He said there was a broader pattern of the National Socialist Network challenging each new law designed to thwart them, but that bills had so far been well-drafted and had withstood legal challenges.
“Obviously, to some extent, it’s hard to be anything other than reactive to that. However, when they want to forecast this and attempt to disrupt one of Australia’s most important days, you could argue there’s a case for more pre-emptive policing. It’s just a matter of whether the laws will allow it.”
Roose said the state could create anti-association laws specifically for them and ban them from wearing masks, while the Commonwealth could consider proscribing the National Socialist Network as a terror organisation.
“I’m not advocating those positions. I’m saying that there are a number of much tougher measures available.”
The government has announced a crackdown on masks at protests but is yet to introduce the bill to parliament. The move has angered civil rights groups.
While the local neo-Nazi groups have not been prohibited or slapped with non-association orders, some individual members have been ordered not to associate with fellow members as part of bail conditions for alleged offences.
Investigations by this masthead and other outlets have uncovered links between local neo-Nazis and designated terror organisations such as The Base and Combat 18, as well as bikies and prison gangs.
Anti-fascist researcher Dr Kaz Ross did not think Friday’s behaviour met the threshold to be considered a crime under the state’s anti-vilification laws, but said she was sometimes surprised the neo-Nazis weren’t charged with low-level crimes such as offensive behaviour or obscene language more often.
“There’s a lot of tools there for police to use,” Ross said. “I’m not seeing the existing laws being used very effectively at all.”
She said the group built solidarity by committing low-level offences but avoided meeting the bar to attract more serious law enforcement, despite being what she called “an incubator for terrorism” by raising the temperature.
Ross said that meant magistrates had to rule on the low-level offences brought before them, rather than the full picture of extremist ideologies.
Neo-Nazis have been documented recruiting aggressively among young men and boys in Australia.
The Human Rights Law Centre said the government should find ways to address hate other than through criminal law.
“Laws on their own will not address racism. These incidents should propel all governments to invest in community-led prevention, and programs aimed at addressing the root causes of hate and disrupting the way these groups organise and recruit,” the centre’s legal director, Sarah Schwartz, said in a statement.
Victorian shadow attorney-general Michael O’Brien said Premier Jacinta Allan needed to explain why the stronger criminal sanctions were yet to become law since the strengthened anti-vilification laws passed.
“The only beneficiaries of this delay are neo-Nazis and their fellow travellers who want to cause maximum distress. Police and the [director of public prosecutions] are powerless because Labor has failed to act. Whether this is incompetence or negligence, it simply isn’t good enough,” O’Brien said.
The opposition voted against the expanded laws, because of a dispute over the legal test applied to civil cases.
The directors of Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation said First Nations people had a long history of service and sacrifice for this country, and thanked allies for their support on Friday.
“We commend Uncle Mark Brown for his strength and determination,” they said in a statement.
“The actions of a few this morning are abhorrent and do not deserve to take away any more from [the day].”
RSL Victoria President Robert Webster condemned the behaviour and said the crowd’s support for the speakers far outweighed the small minority of hecklers.
“The actions of a handful were completely disrespectful to the Aboriginal community, veterans, and the spirit of Anzac Day. In response, the spontaneous applause from the 50,000-strong crowd attending the service drowned out those who disrupted, and showed the respect befitting of the occasion,” he said in a statement.
Allan condemned the disruption as hateful and appalling.
“To pierce the sombre silence of the dawn service is more than disrespect – it dishonours all who have served, fought and fallen,” the premier said.
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correction
An earlier version of this story said there is a bill before parliament cracking down on masks at protests. The bill is yet to be introduced.