Perrottet's Not So Fancy Dress

NSW Premier in hot water over Nazi costume

Does anyone really believe NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is a Nazi sympathiser because he wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party 20 years ago?

The “deeply ashamed” Premier apologised for the “grave error” this week after rumours that a photo from his 21st birthday party would be released.

There is a state election in March.

An ashen faced Perrottet surprised journalists when he called a media conference on Thursday to confess …

“When I was 21 at my 21st fancy dress party I wore a nazi uniform. I am deeply ashamed of what I did and I am truly sorry for the hurt and the pain that this will cause people right across our State.”

Perrottet was, according to journalists, visibly shaking when he made the announcement.

If arrived from Pluto on Thursday and watched the Premier’s grovelling apology with the sound down, you might have imagined he was apologising for running over his neighbour’s child with a tractor.

Channel Ten news immediately reported that the revelation would “turn the State election on its head”.

Federal Labor treasurer Jim Chalmers said the matter would be a factor NSW voters would consider when casting their ballots.

Teal candidate Karen Freyer told reporters how her father, a holocaust survivor, had burst into tears when she phoned to tell him about the Premier’s admission.

Freyer, of course, hopes to take the ultra wealthy seat of Vaucluse off the Liberals at the next election, so she went in hard.

"I've been speaking to a number of people in the community,” she said. “I spoke to a Rabbi yesterday when the news hit and his concern is that this news might fuel even more anti-Semitism.”

I’m not sure about that.

I think there’s more chance Freyer’s running around the Jewish community of Vaucluse “speaking to a number of people” about a fancy dress costume from 20 years ago might fuel even more cynicism about the Teals. But that’s just me.

The Nazis cast an enormous shadow over modern history.

It used to be that we would ask each other, ‘What would Jesus do?’ and then we would do that. Now we are more likely to ask each other, ‘What would Hitler do?’ and then do the opposite.

Hitler has replaced the devil, the Nazis have replaced demons and Auschwitz has replaced hell.

It is for this reason that when you get into an argument online nowadays, your opponents are quick to label you ‘Hitler’ in order to discredit you. It’s the secular version of calling you the devil.

No right thinking person would dress as a Nazi today. But 20 years ago, things were different.

For a start, the Premier was just 21 years old. Raise your hand if you never once exercised poor judgement when you were 21 …

Offence archaeology - where opponents mine your Instagram account in search of an ill advised photo, or dig through your Twitter feed in search of a poorly worded Tweet - is one of the ugliest features of modern culture.

Is it mere coincidence that a photo from Dominic Perrottet’s 21st birthday party happens to surface 20 years later, just weeks before a State election at which he is taking on the gambling industry?

The threatened release of the photo is not about drawing attention to anti-semitism and the Premier’s over the top apology seems hardly to do with repenting of Nazi sympathies, as if Perrottet sympathised with Nazis.

No, the whole episode seems to be much more likely a case of blackmail on the one hand, and damage control on the other. The emotions of Jewish people are are not considered by either side, they are instead weaponised.

Another ugly feature of modern culture, highlighted by this unsavoury incident, is the propensity to judge the past by the standards of today.

Back in 2000, repeats of Hogan’s Heroes - featuring much loved Nazi characters like Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz - were still being shown on television.

Our national broadcaster was showing episodes of Faulty Towers in which the Nazis would be mocked.

Twenty years ago, just about every comedic ridicule of Nazis was quite acceptable. None of it was done in support of the Nazis, just as wearing a Nazi fancy dress costume - no matter how ill advised - doesn’t make you a Nazi.

And, of course, the Premier did not sew the Nazi uniform himself. He hired it from a costume store. That should tell us something about the views of the time. No shop would dare to stock a Nazi uniform in 2022. Times have changed.

Another thing … the Left love to pick and choose whose social faux pas can be overlooked and whose must be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.

Prince Harry dressed in a Nazi uniform and, while chastised, continues to be a figure of adulation for the progressive left.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Treadu once wore blackface. A minor slip up. Nothing to worry about.

Closer to home, comedian Magda Szubanski wore blackface, and survived with little more than a slap on the wrist. She’s a prominent spokesperson for LGBTQ rights and a national treasure, after all.

And we would go on.

Perrottet is, of course, a Catholic and a conservative. He will be afforded no grace for an error he made as a 21-year-old.

Last point … it should not be forgotten that it was Dominic Perrottet - now accused of being a Nazi sympathiser - who led his government to introduce laws banning Nazi symbols on threat of 12 months imprisonment or an $11,000 fine.

Yahoo News ran a story yesterday headlined …

“Dominic Perrottet dodges $11,000 fine over Nazi uniform”

The journalist wrote:

“The law cannot be imposed retroactively, so the Premier will not be punished for wearing the Nazi uniform 20 years ago.”

You get the feeling the left would very much love to impose laws retrospectively on their opponents.

But unable (at this stage) to do that, they will instead impose social mores retrospectively, and attempt to destroy their opponents that way.