Victorian upper house MP Moira Deeming,whopreviously said equality has been taken to extremes and has also taken aim at the state government’s approach to gender-diverse young people,was also at the rally. She said she didn’t know the group of men performing the salute and was afraid of them.

Pesutto has announced his intention to expel Deeming from the parliamentary party room because of her involvement in “organising,promoting and participating in a rally with speakers and other organisers who themselves have been publicly associated with far-right-wing extremist groups including neo-Nazi activists”.

The Andrews government last yearoutlawed the Hakenkreuz,or Nazi swastika,becoming the first Australian jurisdiction to do so. Anyone who intentionally displays the Nazi symbol in public faces a year in prison or a $22,000 fine.

The ban was the result of recommendations from a cross-party inquiry into anti-vilification laws.

Jewish Community Council of Victoria president Daniel Aghion,KC,said he was pleased the state would also move to outlaw the Nazi salute.

“It is an odious symbol of hate,” he said. “[However],it should not be lost in the debate that,on this occasion,the proximate target of this hateful conduct was transgender people and not Jews. There needs to be a broader discussion about vilification of all minorities and criminalisation of such behaviour.”

The director of Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation,Dr David Slucki,echoed those sentiments.

“Banning the Nazi salute will help to reduce the presence of Nazi symbolism in public places,but it will do little to eradicate Nazism,which thrives in online spaces,” he said. “A broader approach is needed to combat the growing far right.”

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich,who urged the government to ban the Nazi salute in January,described Monday as a historic day.

“A terrible wrong has been made right,” he said. “Anyone who loves this country will support this ban.”

Federal Labor MP Josh Burns,who is Jewish and based in Melbourne,called for other states to announce restrictions on the Nazi salute.

“Not for the first time,the Victorian government is showing strong leadership against neo-Nazi bigotry,” he said. “This is an important step and similar reform should be considered across the country.”

Symes had previously flagged the government’s intention to outlaw the Nazi salute after the gesture was made by a group attempting to gatecrash a ceremony for Indigenous Australians in Melbourne’s northern suburbs on January 26.

Countries such as Germany,Austria,Slovakia and the Czech Republic have already banned the salute. Its use is restricted in Sweden and Switzerland.

Meanwhile,Victoria Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt defended how officers managed the anti-trans rally and ensuing counter-protest on Saturday.Vision circulating on social media of one arrest appeared to show an officer kneeing a counter-protester while they were already on the ground.

“I’m certainly not going to condemn the actions of individual officers who were rushed into quite a volatile melting pot of ideology on that day,” Gatt told ABC radio.

“One demonstration was being actively targeted by others and that is just a recipe for disaster.”

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