AN INQUIRY has drawn direct parallels between the mob that shut down a central Victorian council meeting and America's January 6 Capitol insurrection.
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The parliamentary probe into far right extremism also noted that gallows had appeared at Melbourne protests, much as they did in Washington when pro-Trump supporters tried violently to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power.
Its final report into the rise of Victoria's far right found a global movement was helping extreme views enter the mainstream.
"Global and domestic populist movements, particularly the mainstreaming of anti-immigration and anti-democratic ideas, are risk factors for legitimising the rhetoric of extremist movements," the report said.
Multiple expert witnesses pointed to Bendigo's anti-Mosque protests over the mid 2010s.
Those accounts showed how far right extremists hijacked a planning debate about an East Bendigo religious and community centre.
In one notorious moment, anti-Mosque protesters disrupted a meeting of City of Greater Bendigo councillors.
The democratically elected officials were forced to leave with a police escort.
One witness told the inquiry she had been struck, half a decade later, by the similarities with America's January 6 insurrection.
"I get really tearful about this. That storming of the Capitol in the US, that's what happened in Bendigo but at a smaller scale," a Bendigo resident said.
Not all populists are extremists but the sort of political environment that accommodates right-wing populism also provides fertile ground for the far right, the inquiry said.
It said one country's populist movement can affect others "as local actors adopt beliefs and fit them to the local context".
The inquiry made a raft of recommendations.
They included building up trust in democratic institutions in the face of conspiracy theories, counter right-wing extremists' methods of operations, along with tackling inequalities that breed disenchantment and scapegoating.
The inquiry also championed a grassroots Bendigo movement started by residents in the aftermath of one tense anti-Mosque protest.
The "Believe in Bendigo" project put inclusiveness front and centre through public events and education.
The inquiry found it and similar Victorian programs proved how effective community-led campaigns could be.
It recommended the government come up with a strategy to support them.
The inquiry focused specifically on right-wing extremism despite some internal disagreement.
That disagreement could yet shape government responses to the inquiry's recommendations.
Liberal MPs Cathrine Burnett-Wake and Matthew Bach said it was a mistake to think extremism could be divided into "right-wing" and "left-wing" forms.
"We repeatedly heard that there are many similarities between the causes and manifestations of extremism, no matter the particular ideology that underpins it," the inquiry members said, referring to expert testimony.
The pair recommended the parliament read every inquiry finding and recommendation as if they pertained to all forms of extremism.
The government is now considering the inquiry's findings.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
