In this Australia, Nazi salutes are not funny

Last Saturday night I was at the Comedy Basement Club in Melbourne when Tom Ballard performed a series of Nazi salutes, making fun of the laws recently enacted to ban the fascist gesture.

It was a disturbing experience, particularly at a time when my community is facing physical threats, including a van of explosives prepared for a mass casualty attack on Jews discovered just days before Ballard’s routine.

No doubt Ballard will defend his jokes as artistic expression but to me it feels far more symbolic of the times.

Ballard is a Greens member, steeped in a culture where parliamentarians such as Jenny Leong use throwaway lines for which Goebbels himself is owed royalties and leader Adam Bandt refused to condemn Hamas.  

I’m sure he wouldn't say he hates Jews or unfurl a banner on steps to unfurl a banner that claims, ‘Jews Hate Freedom’.

But sitting in the crowd watching those salutes, I felt under attack.

Jewish people represent 0.4% of the Australian population. We are currently facing the worst surge in antisemitic attacks in Australian history. Why choose us as your target?

 “Artistic Expression” isn’t an excuse to dismiss our legitimate fear or to wipe away the pain of the Melbourne Jewish community, the city with the largest population of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel.

Nazism and antisemitism have never been less of a joke in Australia.  In the Green strongholds of Melbourne, where I live, I witness Jewish businesses being boycotted and vandalised, just like my grandparents witnessed in the town of Neubrandenburg.

When Tom Ballard started performing his Nazi salutes, the audience laughed but I was filled with much harder emotions.

 ‘Should I film this?’ I whispered. Just a day before I had been filming inside the ruins of the Adass Israel Synagogue for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Ashes to ashes. Now I was filming this:

After seeing Tom repeat the salute multiple times over, we walked out.

 I stopped to briefly speak with the organiser of the event. His response? “Come on mate, Elon Musk did it”. As if that made it okay.

His tone was dismissive and defensive. How dare I take offence to what is defined as a hateful gesture?

I work in the arts. On every grant application, in every meeting and on every production, Australia arts industry preach and yearn for diversity and respect… unless you’re a Jew.

Authentic representation is at the very heart of the arts industry, but Jews seem to be exempt from this demand too.

Since the notorious February 2024 incident where  the details of a WhatsApp group involving 600 Jewish creatives were published online, many Jewish creatives have found themselves attacked or excluded. Jewish artists are being told that “it’s not the right time for Jewish stories”. Jewish books deals are disappearing, musicians have lost gigs, and theatre productions are boycotted.

The Media, Entertainment, Arts Alliance (MEAA) has expressed solidarity for a range of ethnicities and religions. They have released five statements about Israel and Palestine, but nothing about the experiences of Jewish artists working and living in Australia.

Ballard may face repercussions for his offensive gestures. Victoria Police are investigating the incident and Victoria’s Multicultural Affairs Minister Ingrid Stitt has warned Ballard could be in breach of state laws that ban the Nazi salute.

But sitting in that comedy club, witnessing some people laughing and most people not batting an eyelid, it felt like my fellow audience members were blind to what is happening in our community right now. I wondered if there hadn’t been a Jewish person in the room whether the incident would even have been reported.

Later that same evening, in a wine bar in Carlton North, I bore witness to the same gesture. On this occasion, a group of friends were discussing the Elon Musk incident, while playfully doing the Nazi salute. I had to call them out. “Hey, you shouldn’t be doing that,” I said, bracing myself for more defensiveness. There was a brief but cordial exchange and I was met with a very different response: “I’m sorry.”

At least these people understood what Tom Ballard had failed to grasp. Whether you (or I) think you are an antisemite, it doesn’t matter much if you are engaging in rhetoric that is harmful. And let me spell this one out for you, Tom Ballard, doing a Nazi salute is harmful.