Victorian white supremacist says he performs Nazi salute daily

The first Victorian to be charged with performing a Nazi salute has revealed he still performs the gesture daily, saying “I’m a white man, I don’t care”.

White supremacist Jacob Hersant — the first Victorian charged with performing a Nazi salute — says he still performs the gesture daily.

The neo-Nazi’s admission was made outside the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday after he requested an adjournment so he could arrange public legal funding.

“I am waiting for legal aid to come back to me,” he told the court.

Mr Hersant performed the Nazi salute in front of media outside the County Court in late October after he and Thomas Sewell, the self-proclaimed leader of the National Socialist Network, were sentenced over a violent clash with bushwalkers at Cathedral Range State Park in May 2021.

Both men pleaded guilty to violent disorder over the incident, in which three bushwalkers who filmed the men were terrorised.

Hersant was sentenced to three days’ prison time, already served, and ordered to perform 200 hours of community work.

Sewell was sentenced to one month and seven days’ imprisonment – time he also already served.

Afterwards, Mr Hersant, 24, raised his hand in a salute, stating: “Heil Hitler”.

Jacob Hersant says we should have ‘free expression’ in Australia. Picture: Nicki Connolly

His gesture was made less than a week after Victoria’s Nazi salute laws came into effect.

Outside court, Mr Hersant said: “I am a national socialist and I heil Hitler every day.”

He later said: “I am a white man. I don’t care. (Jewish people) are not my people.”

The state’s anti-vilification laws were strengthened to ban the Nazi salute after members of the National Socialist Network performed the gesture outside parliament during a far-right demonstration earlier this year.

This week Hersant posted a photo of a mass gathering of men dressed in black alongside the Eureka flag and a sign that read: “Australia for the white man”.

Asked if he thought the Nazi salute should be banned, he said: “We should have free expression in this country. These laws are built on emotion and are anti-white.”

Last weekend the National Socialist Network marched the streets of Ballarat in an unannounced demonstration that sickened locals.

The men wore all black, covering their faces with balaclavas, and held a sign stating: “Australia for the white man.”

Ballarat Community Alliance condemned the march, saying the “blow ins” were spreading a “message of hate”.

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

Victoria Police said no Nazi salute charges were laid following the march.

Mr Hersant will return to court on January 16.