A small Mornington Peninsula community has been rocked by a huge hate symbol painted onto a local street.
A giant swastika has been painted onto a Mornington Peninsula road less than 24 hours after the State Government announced a ban on the public display of the Nazi symbol.
The hate symbol was painted overnight on Thursday on Dundas Street at Rye near a group of shops.
Outraged locals were quick to phone the local council and a road crew was sent to clean it on Friday afternoon.
A council spokeswoman said the crew would also paint over the white lines with black paint to ensure no signs remained.
Mornington Peninsula Shire deputy mayor Sarah Race was “so disappointed that this has happened in our beautiful community”.
“I know life is hard at the moment … but it isn’t Germany in the 1930s/40s.”
The ugly incident prompted a local to share his anger about the racist act on social media.
“This is not who Rye is and we will not stand for racism or intolerance,” the man posted.
“Disgusting lowlifes,” another resident posted.
Yet another suggested that the graffiti was in retaliation to Thursday’s announcement that public display of Nazi symbols would become illegal in response to a parliamentary committee report that recommended the change in March.
Read the article by Lucy Callander in the Herald Sun.