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Petition Against Neo-Nazi Festival
ECAJ president Dr. Danny Lamm also contacted the Race Relations Commissioner about the “appalling ‘festival of hate,’ which seems to have developed into an annual event.”
Hammered, organized by the Southern Cross Hammerskins and Blood and Honour which is banned in Germany, is advertised through white supremacist websites with the exact location still kept a secret.
The festival was held on the Gold Coast last year attracting white supremacist acts and audiences from abroad, but police said there were no disturbances.
Politician Rob Messenger is preparing a private member’s bill that calls for a $300,000 fine and mandatory jail sentence for anyone organising neo-Nazi gatherings.
But the Queensland Attorney General Paul Lucas is reluctant to intervene.
“We are not in the business of banning people who express moronic, stupid and wrong points of view,” he told the Brisbane Courier Mail. “If they want to make total fools of themselves and demonstrate their mentality, then that’s for them.
“But if they incite people to violence or breach the anti-discrimination provisions … then we will refer the matter for investigation and prosecution. You can’t ban something on the basis of what people might do.”
The Queensland Police Service and the Brisbane City Council also said that organisers have the legal right to hold the event.