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Victoria Police is investigating after several groups dressed in all black were seen on overpasses along Melbourne’s Monash Freeway holding racist and Islamophobic banners.
Police said they had been alerted to offensive slogans being displayed at several locations along the freeway just after 9.30am on Saturday — the day of .
A witness provided SBS News photos of several of the banners which read: “No black votes should count; No Muslim votes should count; and Only Aussie votes should count.
Only Australian citizens aged 18 and over can vote in state and federal elections.
Former Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers in 2019 said voter fraud in Australia is negligible. He told a parliamentary committee in 2019 that it was “by and large a very small problem”.
The witness, who asked to remain anonymous, described the scenes as “disgusting”.
“Imagine having a little Asian child [or] a Muslim child in the back of a seat just driving with your family on a Saturday morning, and then you just see this racism,” the witness, who is an Australian Muslim, told SBS News. “It’s just disturbing.”
The witness reported observing approximately 30 individuals dispersed across three different overpasses.
Law enforcement responded to the Mount Waverley area following calls from several drivers. Source: SBS News / Supplied
A Victoria Police spokesperson told SBS News in a statement: “Police have been told people were seen congregating on several foot and vehicle overpass bridges in the vicinity of Huntingdale Road.
“It is believed the people involved, who were described as wearing all black and face coverings, were holding banners which displayed offensive slogans.”
An alt-right media outlet that promotes white supremacist ideologies published a story on the demonstration, reporting that two dozen members of neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network (NSN), had been holding the signs.
The article quoted NSN figure Joel Davis, but he did not make any statement as to whether he or the NSN were involved. An account appearing to belong to Davis shared the article on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Victoria Police could not confirm whether the NSN was responsible, telling SBS News its investigation was ongoing.
On Thursday, Victoria Police said it was investigating flyers authorised by the NSN that were delivered to Jewish households in Melbourne.
In the past week, some other flyers titled “Flood Australia with Indians” were also seen, which were “authorised by Joel Davis, National Socialist Network”.
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