Victoria has vowed to ban the Nazi salute and strengthen its anti-vilification laws after neo-Nazis recently gatecrashed an anti-trans rally in Melbourne.

A group of about 30 people dressed in black from the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network performed the salute on Victoria’s parliament steps before being led away by police.

But an expert has cast doubt on the effectiveness of banning Nazi symbols, questioning whether this will do enough to deter far-right extremism in the country and where efforts may be better placed.

Today, Lydia Khalil, senior research fellow at Deakin University and project director at the Lowy Institute on whether banning symbols may be a band-aid solution to a much bigger problem.