White power festival planned for Brisbane
THE Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has urged the federal government to act on a Neo-Nazi music event that is to take place in Brisbane later this year.
THE Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has urged the federal government to act on a Neo-Nazi music event that is to take place in Brisbane later this year.
The Hammered Festival has previously taken place on the Gold Coast and is scheduled for April 21, one day after Adolf Hitler’s birthday. It is being co-organised by white supremacy group the Southern Cross Hammer Skinheads in conjunction with international hate groups, including Blood and Honour, banned in Germany for spreading Nazi messages.
ECAJ president Dr Danny Lamm confirmed the ECAJ had written to relevant federal ministers and the Race Relations Commissioner about the “appalling ‘festival of hate’, which seems to have developed into an annual event”.
“What a sad reflection on contemporary Australia that the state government of Queensland and the Queensland Police say they are powerless to prevent an open-air festival celebrating racism and bigotry,” he said. “Those who say Australia’s laws against racial vilification are an unwarranted intrusion into free speech should hang their heads in shame. Those laws are clearly not tough enough.”
A spokesperson for the Queensland Police Service said there was not a lot they could do if no offence was committed. “There are a number of laws that bind people planning public gatherings to ensure public safety and amenity.
“As long as the group abides by the law it’s not a police issue,” the spokesperson said.
Queensland Attorney-General Paul Lucas told Brisbane’s Courier Mail that his government could not stop the festival. “We are not in the business of banning people who express moronic, stupid and wrong points of view,” he said. But he did warn the government would act if there was any incitement of violence or racial vilification.
Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner Helen Szoke said there may be recourse for offended parties under the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) to make a complaint about the event.
“The RDA makes unlawful acts that offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person on the basis of race, colour, national or ethnic origin,” she said.
A Hammered Festival spokesperson said its intentions were “harmless, and legal”.
GARETH NARUNSKY
ECAJ president Danny Lamm has written to relevant federal ministers and the Race Relations Commissioner about the Hammered festival.
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