Peter Dutton has been urged to condemn the actions of the neo-Nazis who attended an anti-trans rally at the weekend.
About 30 people from neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network joined demonstrators outside the Victorian parliament on Saturday, repeatedly performing the Nazi salute.
Their behaviour, and the involvement of state MP Moira Deeming in organising, promoting and attending the Let Women Speak rally, was swiftly condemned by Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto.
On Tuesday, Mr Pescutto released his motion to expel Ms Deeming from the party room when parliament sits next week.
Ms Deeming has vowed to fight the “unjust” motion to oust her.
The chair of the federal parliament’s national security committee, Peter Khalil, urged Mr Dutton to follow in Mr Pescutto’s footsteps.
“I would hope that the federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton also shows the same level of leadership and condemns that type of behaviour, condemns the Nazis,” he told ABC’s RN.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said condemning the actions did not go far enough and attacked the state Liberals for not standing up for trans rights.
“That event was a nasty hateful event, long before anyone offered up the Nazi salute,” Mr Andrews told reporters.
“You might say that the (Victorian) Liberal Party are increasingly becoming a nasty, hateful little rabble.”
The state government on Monday confirmed it would move to ban the Nazi salute in response to the weekend’s rally.
But banning the symbol wouldn’t address the “deeper structural problems” that allowed it to happen, Mr Khalil warned.
“Often, the rise of the far-right occurs when there might be issues around inequality or socio-economic issues,” he said.
“They are picking – in this case it was targeting the trans community – they pick out minorities to attack, they try and sow division and hatred and fear of the other. That is their ideological playbook.
“We should be aware of that and the way that they try and manipulate and get oxygen in their actions and trying to manipulate the community. We need to address that now.”