Right: Controversial comedian Ricky Gervais, seen here dressed as Adolph Hitler, has said that banning people from using the Nazi salute would be an infringement of freedom of speech
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Arguments in favour of outlawing the Nazi salute
1. The Nazi salute serves to promote an ideology and a regime that persecuted and killed millions of people
Those who support the banning of Nazi salutes argue that these salutes serve to memorialise and endorse the atrocities committed in the name of Nazism during World War II.
Nazi Germany, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, prompted World War II and enslaved, tortured, and killed millions of people because of their ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and disabilities. This program of mass slaughter saw the wholesale murder of Poles, Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, and the disabled; however, the primary targets of this extermination program were Jewish people.
The Nazis' murder of six million Jewish people (including 1.5 million Jewish children 
) from all over Europe and Russia is referred to as the Holocaust. The Holocaust is the largest act of antisemitism (bigotry and hatred directed at Jewish people) ever perpetrated. Those who want the Nazi or Hitler salute made illegal argue that Australia should ban any act that seems to approve the prejudice and crimes against humanity that were committed under Nazi rule.
A group of Victorian Holocaust survivors, Abram Goldberg, Sarah Saaroni and Jack Leder, supported by Melbourne Holocaust Museum chief executive, Jayne Josem, and Anti-Defamation Commission chair, Dr Dvir Abramovi, have called on the Victorian government to ban the making of the Nazii salute in public in Victoria because of the support it gives to Nazi-derived ideas and actions. In a statement, the group said the Nazi salute celebrates 'Hitler's monstrous legacy and the indescribable crimes committed by his regime'.
The group's request follows a series of recent incidents where white supremacists performed the gesture in public spaces, including on Australia Day when a neo-Nazi group attempted to disrupt an Indigenous mourning ceremony at Coburg Town Hall while making the salute. The group of about 20 men, dressed in black clothes and masks, waved Australian flags, and held banners that read 'White Pride Australia'. Victoria Police were called and responded by forming a line between attendees and the protesters to protect those who were part of the Indigenous event before they went inside the Town Hall building. Jack Leder stated, 'These are thugs who are trying to intimidate and put fear into people. If they're allowed to keep on doing this, it justifies it in the eyes of the public. There has to be a law to stop it.'
There is growing concern that the use of the Nazi salute indicates an increasing antisemitism and racism within some communities. Two days before the Coburg Town Hall incident, more than 20 white supremacists were also seen doing the salute on Elwood Beach. The group of neo-Nazis posed at the Point Ormond lookout while displaying a red and blue flag symbolic of the far-right European Australia Movement. All made a Nazi salute while posing for a photograph which has since been widely distributed. Elwood has a significant Jewish population, and this act has been condemned as intimidation. The white nationalist group was founded by Thomas Sewell, who was recently convicted of punching a security guard and sentenced to 150 hours of community work. Sewell made the Nazi salute on emerging from the court.
These disruptive demonstrations involving the use of the Hitler salute have been denounced as perpetuating the hatred embodied by the Nazi regime. Dr Abramovich and Melbourne Holocaust Museum chief executive Jayne Josem have stated, 'It is beyond belief that those inflamed with virulent antisemitism, who are using this evil gesture as a rallying cry and who have weaponised the salute to intimidate and terrorise the community, have the law on their side.' A Victorian Government spokesperson has said, 'We've been clear there's no place for this hateful ideology in Victoria. Vilification has no place in our community.' When in May 2022, the Victorian government put through legislation to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika, the state's Attorney General, Jaclyn Symes, similarly stated, 'We know that this is a symbol of hate and division, and it is incredibly harmful and damaging, the messaging it sends...Victoria is multicultural. We are multi-ethnic. We do not want a community that stands for this type of behaviour.'
2. The banning of Nazi salutes in public serves as a recruitment tool for extremist right-wing groups, which are growing in size and number in Australia.
Those who call for banning the Nazi salute argue that neo-Nazi groups are becoming increasingly dangerous. In 2021, undercover surveillance conducted within neo-Nazi groups in Victoria, who have connections with groups in other states, made some disturbing discoveries. A report published in The Age on August 16, 2021, stated, 'Neo-Nazi leaders are taped advising members to hang onto their guns and raise funds to buy up rural property to form the genesis of a new, racist state. They're also involved in prolific networking with other violent cells across Australia and overseas.' The Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, warned Australians of the growing threat of far-right extremism in his 2021 Annual Threat Assessment. Burgess stated, 'Ideological extremism investigations have grown from around one-third of our priority counter-terrorism caseload, to around 40 per cent.'
These groups have numerous ways to attract new members, including extensive use of the Internet; however, critics of the current laws have noted that the Nazi salute can act as a powerful recruitment tool both in the real world and online. As an example of the salute being used in the physical world and as a recruitment tool online, a report published in The Adelaide Advertiser on September 3, 2022, noted that a neo-Nazi group had posted a photograph of its members giving the Fascist salute in front of the Adelaide Holocaust Museum. This has been condemned as the group attempting to attract attention by spreading the message of hatred embodied by the crimes of the Third Reich. Anti-Defamation Commission chair, Dr Dvir Abramovich, has stated, 'The contagion of unvarnished, raw hate that is now defiling Adelaide has reached an ominous pitch...' Dr Abramovich has further warned, 'They use the Hitler salute as a rallying cry to celebrate the murderous legacy of Hitler. I don't think that they should have the law on their side.'
It has been claimed that using the Internet to spread neo-Nazi gestures like the Hitler salute is potentially very influential as the Internet dramatically extends the reach of these symbols. In an article published in Time Magazine on February 18, 2020, it was noted that one of the biggest problems is in the infrastructure of social media and tech companies. Algorithms give priority to content that maximises viewer attention and to content that causes anger and indignation. Researcher into extremist groups and their recruitment strategies, Julia Ebner, has stated, 'It's like handing a megaphone to extremists. It's allowed fringe views to get a much bigger audience.' It has been claimed that transmitting gestures like the Nazi salute in this manner is very dangerous.
The visible and dramatic nature of the Nazi salute and the ease with which it can be made means it can be imitated by children and young people, who may not be fully aware of the significance of what they are doing, but who are being drawn into neo-Nazi hate groups. On October 1, 2022, Sydney United Supporters group (SUS) disrupted the opening of the Australia Cup final. They booed and raised their arms in what appeared to be a Nazi salute during the Welcome to Country. These actions have been widely condemned as seeking to promote racial division. Former United player and Australia international Craig Foster described the behaviour as a 'horrific display of racist hate' and apologisd to Indigenous Australians. Concerns has been expressed that such behaviour, witnessed by the 16,461spectators at the game and by many, many thousands more watching the televised competition at home, could well spread racist hostility. The state Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive, Darren Bark, has stated, 'These vile symbols and salutes have no place in modern Australian society... Reprehensible conduct such as this... [is] undermining our cohesive multicultural society.'
3. The Nazi salute being made publicly in Australian states is deeply painful and offensive to those who survived Nazi persecution and to their descendants.
In 1933, when the Nazis first came to power in Germany, there were 23,000 Jewish people in Australia. A further 9,000 escaped Europe before the start of World War II. After World War II, Australia accepted growing numbers of Holocaust survivors. Approximately 15,000 survivors settled in Australia in the four years from 1945. By 1961, about 35,000 pre-war Jewish refugees and post-war Holocaust survivors had immigrated to Australia. Many of Australia's present-day Jewish community are descendants of those who escaped Nazism in the 1930s and '40s. The 2021 census indicated that Australia has a Jewish population of almost 100,000 which is a 9.8 percent increase since the 2016 census. Though the number of Jewish people living in Australia who survived the Holocaust grows smaller each year, the number of their descendants is growing.
Survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants are deeply offended and traumatised by symbols and gestures like the Hitler salute. They are reminders of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and promote neo-Nazi hatred and prejudice. The impact of this salute and the abuse that often accompanies it has been explained by recent victims. In May 2022, a heavily tattooed man made a Nazi salute towards a young Jewish mother and her child as they were walking in the Caulfield area. She was walking near the local synagogue when a young man driving past, slowed and made a Hitler salute. The woman said, 'It is hard to believe that this is happening in Melbourne, in the heart of the Jewish community. I am very scared.' Adelaide Jewish community leader, Norman Schueler, has described being verbally attacked by a man performing a Hitler salute on a Camberwell street in Melbourne on September 28, 2022. The man gave a Nazi salute and said, 'We should have killed all the Jews; we will kill the f--king Jews.' Mr Schueler stated, 'I was horrified. It brought to life the images from members of one's family - the people who experienced Kristallnacht and the stories they told when they left Germany.' Mr Schueler further stated, 'I was absolutely staggered that could happen in a civilised society in the street.' Mr Schueler said he had been left traumatised and struggling to sleep after the incident. A similar confrontation occurred, in January 2023, when an elderly Jewish woman was accosted by a neo-Nazi man at a supermarket in Elsternwick, Melbourne. The bald, middle-aged man in dark clothing, raised his arm in a Nazi salute and called out 'Heil Hitler!' The woman, who is in her 70s and whose family survived the Holocaust said, 'I never thought it would happen in Australia in 2022.' The woman has said she is afraid she will encounter the man again and that it will happen again.
It has been claimed that episodes involving the Nazi salute can traumatise and intimidate individuals and entire communities. Anti-Defamation Commission chair, Dr Dvir Abramovich, has described the effect of the Elsternwick incident on the Jewish community living in the area. Referring to his own trauma, he has stated, 'As the son of Holocaust survivors who fled Europe to give their family a peaceful life, it brought back all the traumas of my past: the guilt of my parents for surviving the Holocaust and their struggles.' Referring to Elsternwick as a whole he claimed, 'Openly giving the Nazi salute in a supermarket in the heart of the Jewish community shocks the conscience and shows that these Hitler worshippers are less inhibited in expressing their wild and dangerous feelings in public.
These violent gestures not only scar and traumatise the victims, but they shake the affected community, leaving many frightened and vulnerable.'
4. Nazi symbols have already been banned in Victoria and other states
Those who argue that the Nazi salute should be banned note that Victoria and other Australian states have already banned the public display of the swastika. They claim that the Nazi salute should be outlawed for the same reasons as have led governments to prohibit the swastika.
Victoria was the first Australian state to mark its opposition to Nazi ideas and ideology by banning the Hakenkreuz, often referred to as the Nazi swastika. On June 21, 2022, the Summary Offences Amendment (Nazi Symbol Prohibition) Bill 2022 was passed in the Victorian Parliament. A media release issued the same day noted, 'This landmark passing sends a clear message that the dissemination of Nazi and neo-Nazi ideology through the public display of the Nazi symbol has no place in Victoria.' The state's minister for Multicultural Affairs, Ros Spence, added, 'These laws are part of our unwavering commitment to challenge antisemitism, hatred and racism wherever and whenever they occur.'
Victorian Jewish representatives have argued that the Nazi salute should be banned on the same rationale as the swastika was outlawed, arguing that any state that recognises the harm caused by the swastika should also recognise the harm caused by the Nazi salute. Anti-Defamation Commission chair, Dr Dvir Abramovich, has stated, 'There was a very strong and unequivocal indication from the government at that time [when the swastika was banned] that they are certainly open and willing to look at banning other Nazi symbols.' A Victorian government spokesperson has endorsed this view stating, 'We've been clear there's no place for this hateful ideology in Victoria - public demonstrations and displays such as these [involving Nazi salutes] do nothing but cause further pain and division. Vilification has no place in our community.'
Other Australia states have followed Victoria's lead and banned the public display of the swastika. On August 11, 2022, the New South Wales Parliament passed legislation which makes it illegal to wave a Nazi flag or display memorabilia bearing swastikas. The New South Wales Attorney General, Mark Speakman, stated, 'The events that occurred under the Nazi regime represent one of the darkest periods of recorded human history. The atrocities committed during that period are almost unimaginable, and the intergenerational trauma they have caused continues to be felt by many people today. This new offence sends a clear message that the display of Nazi symbols, and the hatred and bigotry they represent will not, and should not, be tolerated.
This new criminal offence will provide important, additional safeguards against hate speech and vilification in our State.'
The head of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Darren Bark, welcomed the new law stating, 'Nazi symbols are a gateway to violence and are used as a recruitment tool by extremists. Banning their display is a long-overdue and much needed law in our state.' Again, supporters of banning the public making of a Nazi salute argue that Nazi symbols and gestures represent the same danger and so should both be banned.
Later in 2022, the Queensland and Tasmanian governments indicated that they would soon introduce similar legislation to the anti-swastika bills passed in Victoria and New South Wales. On January 23, 2023, the Western Australian Government issued a media release indicating that it too would be introducing a bill to prohibit the display and possession of Nazi symbols. The release states, 'The display of Nazi symbols is offensive to many members of society, and particularly to the Jewish community, survivors of the Holocaust and their families and those who have fought against fascism. Nazi symbols, such as the Hakenkreuz (commonly referred to as the swastika), are widely associated with antisemitism, genocide, and racial hatred.
Unfortunately, in Western Australia and throughout Australia, there continues to be reported incidents of antisemitism, which sometimes involve the display and possession of Nazi symbols.'
There is a growing movement across Australia to outlaw the display of the Nazi swastika. Opponents of the public display of the Nazi salute believe it represents the same offence to Holocaust survivors and their families and the same threat to public safety and community welfare.
5. Allowing the Nazi salute normalises its use
Those who believe that the Nazi salute should be outlawed in public, argue that if its use becomes commonplace and seen as appropriate this can spark curiosity about its origins and may also encourage young people to see neo-Nazi views as acceptable.
There has been general concern expressed at a growing tendency to normalise Nazi symbols and gestures by dissociating them from their horrific origins and seeing them as funny or as a form of entertainment. One prominent instance of such normalisation supposedly intended for entertainment was the work of Englishman Mark Meechan who trained and filmed his girlfriend's pug making a Nazi salute in response to Hitler speeches, the phrase 'Sieg Heil' and the phrase 'gas the jews'. He made videos which were posted on the Internet in April 2016 and have been watched millions of times. Meechan defended his video claiming, 'It was clearly satire. It was clearly a joke. I wasn't setting out to cause any offense to any people. If anything I was wanting people to laugh, and just obviously, it was taken the wrong way.'
In March 2018, Meechan was found guilty of a charge under the British Communications Act in that he posted a video on social media and YouTube which was 'anti-Semitic and racist in nature' and was likely to aggravate religious prejudice. Sheriff Derek O'Carroll stated, 'In my view it is a reasonable conclusion that the video is grossly offensive. The description of the video as humorous is no magic wand. This court has taken the freedom of expression into consideration. But the right to freedom of expression also comes with responsibility.'
A range of commentators have defended Meechan's post; however, its critics maintain it is not only offensive but harmful, in that it could popularise extreme and violent views. Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, a Professor of History at Fairfield University, has warned of the dangers of normalising Nazism. He has stated, 'The Internet above all is the medium that really focuses on Hitler as a completely decontextualised, dehistoricised figure. We can draw a Hitler moustache on anything or a swastika on anything and start laughing at it.' Some commentators have warned that popularising the Nazi salute and other Nazi symbols can be especially harmful to adolescents as they are at an impressionable stage of their development. Ashleigh Woods, psychologist, and board member for the Indiana Psychological Association, has explained that group acceptance is a major consideration for young people. She has stated, 'Belonging-ness is an important motivator for behavior especially in teens.' This means that seeing the Nazi salute used by others can prompt its wider use among adolescents. Julie Steck, a psychologist specialising in children and adolescents with developmental, learning, emotional, and behavioral concerns, has stated, 'They don't think long-term and don't think about the consequences of their behavior. There's the herd mentality that if one person says this will be a good idea, they jump on board without thinking of the consequences.'
One of the concerns is that for young people with a propensity to accept Nazi beliefs and prejudices, copying the salute and being curious about its origins could result in them becoming members of far-right groups. Psychologist Julie Steck has explained that some of those who have used the Nazi salute did so because they think it is 'funny in the moment, and in retrospect, [acknowledge] they did something stupid, and they regret it.' She argues that there is a more concerning group who are 'proud of what they said and did and would say they don't regret it.' Lastly, Steck suggests, there is the most concerning group who come to 'believe in what they are doing...'
Reports of such concerning, apparently Nazi-inspired behaviour were published about a private school in Melbourne in September 2022. A parent has complained that a large group of bullies at the school refer to Jewish students as 'Jew' and perform Nazi salutes in their presence. Some of the victims of this bullying are descendants of Holocaust survivors. Critics argue that the possibility that normalising the use of the salute might lead to an increase in neo-Nazi beliefs is an important reason to outlaw the use of the gesture.