Reece Whitby insists religious tension is lower in WA than east after man charged with showing nazi symbol

Community relations were less tense in WA than Australia’s Eastern States, Police Minister Reece Whitby has said. Commenting a day after an 18-year-old man was charged with displaying a Nazi symbol in a public place, Mr Whitby said there were no signs that racial tensions were rising in the State. Police alleged the accused man was wearing a black face covering and a necklace displaying a Nazi symbol while near a mosque in Gosnells on Tuesday morning. Mr Whitby said the charges was evidence WA’s response to the massacre was effective and were the first laid under Operation Dalewood, a police response set up to protect religious sites after Sunday’s terror attack at Bondi. The Bondi shooting, in which 15 people died, has triggered a widespread outpouring of concern this week about rising anti-Semitism and other racially-motivated abuse in Australia and criticism that the nation’s politicians were not doing enough, quickly enough, to combat and contain the behaviour. “This demonstrates the effectiveness of our insignia laws in terms of Nazi insignia’s and salutes,” Mr Whitby said. “It shows that our local WA Police are doing an excellent job in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, they’ve increased their presence significantly around places of worship, places of Jewish community organisations, but also Muslims and other people of other various faiths around the community.” Mr Whitby said on Wednesday that he believed there was less tension in WA than being experienced in some east coast communities in the wake of the Bondi shootings. “I don’t have any indication there’s a sense of that (rising tensions in response to Bondi) in Western Australia,” he said. “You never take anything for granted, anywhere, but I do believe we have a lower temperature in Western Australia. “The engagement with and the relationship between all groups in our community is better and different than exists in other States.”