A former Australian television actor’s bid to overturn his conviction for making a banned Nazi salute at a far-right political gathering has failed, with a Victorian judge confirming the guilty verdict earlier this week.
Damien Richardson, 57, a household name in Australia for decade-long roles on hit shows including *Neighbours*, *City Homicide*, and *Blue Heelers* – most notably playing Gary Canning on *Neighbours* from 2014 to 2020 – has reemerged in recent years as a far-right political activist. The offense dates back to a September 2024 political rally organized by the National Workers Alliance, an event reportedly attended by multiple known neo-Nazi sympathizers.
At the rally, Richardson delivered a wide-ranging speech railing against what he framed as a “war on men”, the growing influence of “wokeism” in public life, and what he calls the “transsexual agenda”. During a segment addressing past claims in *The Age* newspaper that compared him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, Richardson raised his right arm in the banned Nazi salute, drawing applause from attendees. The entire incident, including the gesture, was broadcast live to audiences on Facebook.
Richardson was originally found guilty of violating Australia’s ban on the Nazi gesture late in 2024, but he appealed the conviction and pending sentence to the County Court of Victoria. His legal team argued that the salute qualified for an exception under the law, as it had been performed for a legitimate artistic purpose. Richardson himself claimed the gesture was intended as satire to mock accusations that he held anti-Semitic views, noting that his grandfather served in World War II against the Axis powers, making the original comparison particularly offensive to him.
After a two-day appeal hearing held last month, Judge Kate Hawkins issued her ruling on Monday, rejecting the appeal and upholding the original guilty verdict. In her published judgment, Hawkins outlined that the context of the act made the “artistic purpose” defense invalid.
“The central logic of your performance of the Nazi gesture in the context of your speech was to respond to *The Age* article and link it back to the political message of your speech,” Hawkins wrote. “You were a political speaker at a political event addressing issues politically important to you. Whether it was done satirically, humorously or to otherwise engage the audience is immaterial. It follows that your true and dominant purpose was not a genuine artistic one.”
Richardson is scheduled to return to the County Court of Victoria on September 1 for formal sentencing. The case has drawn renewed public attention to Australia’s restrictions on hate symbols and the growing presence of far-right extremist ideology in mainstream political spaces in the country.