Police are investigating after a group of white supremacists staged an early morning demonstration outside a shopping centre in Melbourne.
The group gathered outside Northland Shopping Centre in Preston, north-east of Melbourne’s CVD about 3.30am on Sunday.
They were filmed chanting slogans such as ‘white man fight back’ and ‘white pride’ while holding an offensive sign.
Speaker and advocate Jeff Kissubi posted an image of the gathering to Instagram on Monday, claiming there were ‘no police in sight’ and ‘no immediate dispersal’.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen described the behaviour as ‘hateful’ and ‘extremist’ and said it has ‘no place’ in Victoria.
‘This is disgusting behaviour by a group of cowards who seek to do nothing more than intimidate and spread hatred – we will not stand for it’, she told Guardian Australia.
She said the government had recently passed enhanced hate speech laws she claimed would make it easier to crack down on people who ‘whip up hate and fear against Victorians because of who they are’.
It comes one week after a violent brawl broke out between ‘rival gangs’ at the shopping centre on the afternoon of Sunday May 25.
Crowds fled the shopping centre after the scuffle broke out in the food court, leaving a 20-year-old man with serious head injuries.
The protesters are pictured outside Northland Shopping Centre on Sunday morning
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan (pictured) described the incident as ‘disgusting’ and ‘hateful’, spruiking her government’s tougher hate laws
That incident prompted Ms Allan to bring forward a ban on the sale of machetes to take effect from Wednesday instead of September.
The laws, which the government described as the toughest of their kind in Australian history, were introduced to tackle a wave of violent knife crime across the state.
‘In Victoria, community safety comes first. We must never let places we meet become places we fear,’ Ms Allan said on Monday.
‘I hate these knives, and I will keep introducing as many laws as it takes to get them off our streets, out of our shops and out of our lives.’
A spokesperson for Victoria Police confirmed they were investigating an incident involving an ‘offensive banner’ outside a Preston shopping centre.
‘There is absolutely no place for antisemitic, racist or hate-based behaviour in our society and police will not tolerate such activity,’ they added.
