Nazi-like images of Peter Dutton, Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer referred to police
Article by Will Seitam and Sarah Ison, courtesy of The Australian
A Wagga Wagga storefront display featuring images of Peter Dutton and billionaire mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer wearing Nazi-like regalia has been reported to police by local MP Michael McCormack, who is also pictured in the display.
The mocked-up photos show the four dressed in what appear to be World War II-era German uniforms, some with Iron Cross medals and Nazi eagle emblems.
Advision studio owner Michael Agzarian has been using his Fitzmaurice Street shopfront to protest against Israel since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.
Nationals MP for Riverina Mr McCormack said the messages were “vile and inappropriate” and he had reported the display to police. “This sort of thing does incite hatred and that’s what it’s designed to do,” he told The Australian.
Mr McCormack said the repeat political provocateur was “trying to whip up a storm of anti-Semitism”.
“This latest episode he’s got Palmer, Rinehart, Dutton and myself dressed up as SS Gestapo Nazis. It’s reprehensible,” he said.
“Peace in the Middle East is not going to be achieved on this street. Six million Jews died in the Holocaust and by putting windows up like that it, almost makes light of that appalling human tragedy.”
Mr Agzarian has a long history of provocative political campaigns, erecting a 4.5m poster of a “hopeless” Tony Abbott in Sydney in 2015, and a series of bin stickers featuring Peter Dutton as “Rancid refuse” in 2022.
Many other political works have graced Advision store’s brick-and-mortar collections or have been peddled on the company’s social media catalogue.
Mr Agzarian declined to respond to The Australian.
Last year, he was forced to remove a poster that read: “Israelis claim to be the chosen people. Chosen to: commit genocide, gang-rape, pillage, kill, starve, maim and torture others.”
The window display, which has been referred to as “normalised anti-Semitism”, also featured a widely circulated print comparing Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Agzarian said at the time he had “never been anti-Jewish but instead always directed my messages at the state of Israel and its controversial Prime Minister”.
A number of Australian institutions demanded their names be removed from an online clientele list claimed by Advision, many of which said they had no record of services from the business.
GINA RINEHART SPOKESPERSON:
“This depiction of one of the darkest periods in human history, disrespects the millions of people who suffered or died under those uniforms.
Such disrespect should have no place in our country but is unfortunately further proof of what the President of Argentina, Milei said, quote, “the modern State has more than enough tools, which have grown in sophistication over time. We are not talking about an obvious State, like the neo-fascist or communist one, but rather a subtle and insidious State, which advances on the individual through art, propaganda, and cultural infiltration.”
Such Nazi propaganda was misused by the left in the USA prior to their last election, and sadly now in Australia.”
This comment was given to a journalist, but not used by him.
