Posters seized by police at a Canberra venue last week under recently introduced Commonwealth hate laws will be returned without criminal proceedings.
Warning: Images in this story may cause offence.
ACT Policing said it had now assessed seven posters that officers had taken from Dissent Cafe and Bar in Canberra’s CBD on February 4 following a complaint made to Crime Stoppers.
Police said the images, which depicted Donald Trump, J.D Vance, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin dressed in Nazi-like uniforms, “satisfied certain aspects of the legislation” but did not meet other aspects.
Police had previously said the issue with the posters was the inclusion of Nazi swastikas, which is a prohibited symbol under the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Act 2026.
However, there are some provisions for “religious, academic, educational, artistic, literary, scientific or journalistic” purposes under the Commonwealth legislation.
A poster depicting Elon Musk in a Nazi-like uniform was among those seized by ACT police. (Supplied: Dissent Cafe and Bar)
Dissent’s owner David Howe previously said the posters were artworks that expressed an anti-fascist message, and on the night in question, he did not comply with officers’ requests to remove the images, leading to their seizure.
After a week of waiting to find out whether police would pursue a prosecution, Mr Howe now knows he will face no charges and have his posters returned “in due course”.
‘Vindication’ for the owner
Mr Howe said he felt “vindicated” by the decision but there were questions left unanswered.
“It does raise the question — if the police are in the business of determining what you can put on your walls, what next? Will we be told what we can say?” he said.
Posters depicting Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin were on display at the bar for several weeks before being seized by police. (Supplied: Dissent Cafe and Bar)
Mr Howe said he received “no assurance” from the police that similar incidents would not occur in the future if he put the posters back up.
“The cops should not have been put in the position where they have to police what is clearly art,” he said.
“The law is badly conceived. There were questions raised at the time the law was passed — that point of view has been vindicated.”
He added that the police had not apologised for seizing the posters, but told him to collect them himself.
“An apology might have been nice. I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for it though,” he said.
“Police probably aren’t in the business of apologising for their actions.”
Mr Howe reopened his bar the day after the posters were seized and had put one picture back up in the window, blurring the Nazi symbol and adding red text saying “censored”.
“ACT Policing remains committed to ensuring that alleged antisemitic, racist and hate incidents are addressed promptly and thoroughly and when possible criminality is identified,” a police spokesperson said in a statement today.
“ACT Policing will not hesitate to take appropriate action.”