00:02Antiques dealer Jamie Blewett has made a career selling military memorabilia.
00:07I've been doing this business for about 20 plus years professionally.
00:10Most of his business came from the sale of Nazi Germany antiques,
00:14until the Federal Government banned the sale or trade of items bearing the Nazi swastika in 2024.
00:20It's a standard officer's dagger, you're probably looking between two and three thousand dollars.
00:25But Mr Blewett continues to sell some items, claiming he's covered by an exemption.
00:29He was told to get his own legal advice when he approached the Attorney General's office,
00:34and was also provided an example of a museum being allowed to trade in Nazi items for educational purposes.
00:41Mr Blewett registered a subsidiary of his business with museum in the name
00:45and continued to sell the memorabilia to private buyers.
00:48We get probably 20 or 30 people come to our shop per day.
00:52Each and every one of them, we offer them our fact sheet on what happened during the Third Reich and
00:57the Holocaust.
00:57We try and educate people about those things.
01:00WA Jewish community leaders are outraged the trade continues, warning the laws aren't working as they'd expected.
01:07I mean I don't think that anybody could deny that there is a groundswell of negative sentiment towards Jews,
01:14and there will be people who collect Nazi memorabilia for whom that is part of the thrill.
01:19Trying to ban the symbols of these ideas is really treating the symptom for the wound.
01:24So my understanding it's a legal loophole, not a lack of willingness by the enforcement agencies.
01:30So we need to understand what that loophole is, if state laws have any role to play,
01:35and if we have the opportunity to tighten up as a result of this experience, we will.
01:40When the ban was introduced, the Federal Government declared there's no place in Australia for those who profit from hateful
01:46ideologies.
01:47But the Australian Federal Police have confirmed they're yet to lay a charge under the laws, which are due to
01:52be reviewed in 2028.
