Police have seized art posters from a Canberra music venue and bar that depict world leaders and others, including Donald Trump and Elon Musk, wearing Nazi uniforms, and are investigating whether new federal hate symbol laws were broken.
David Howe, the owner of Dissent Cafe and Bar in Canberra’s CBD, said his venue was shut down for about two hours on Wednesday night as police investigated a complaint about hate imagery relating to five posters in the window.
“I think it’s ludicrous to be perfectly honest,” he told Guardian Australia, describing the works as an “anti-fascist statement” and noting the shut down had caused the cancellation of an interstate band’s performance.
So the very first application of a law which is purported to be to stop neo-Nazis / neo-fascists was against anti-fascist art.
This does seem to be contrary to the law itself, which has at least two defences here for anti-facist political art.
Firstly, the artistic defence:
“(9) Subsection (1) does not apply to a person if a reasonable person would consider that: … (a) the conduct mentioned in paragraph (1)(a) is engaged in for a purpose that is: (i) a religious, academic, educational, artistic, literary or scientific purpose; and (ii) not contrary to the public interest;”
Secondly, the defence that it was genuinely exhibited to oppose Nazi ideology or fascism:
“(10) Subsection (1) does not apply to a person engaging in conduct mentioned in paragraph (1)(a) if: … (f) the person genuinely engages in the conduct for the purpose of opposing Nazi ideology, fascism or a related ideology”.