'Hogan's Heroes art parody' in Wagga slammed as disgraceful by Riverina MP, police investigate

NSW Police has confirmed it is investigating imagery in a Wagga shopfront depicting Riverina MP Michael McCormack and three other Australian public figures as German soldiers from World War II.

Graphic design studio Advision put up a mural on Monday (31 March) depicting Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart, Peter Dutton and Mr McCormack wearing outfits akin to that of German military leaders and Nazis.

Mr McCormack called the artwork “beyond disgraceful” and reported it to the police.

A spokesperson for NSW Police said the incident was being investigated and legal advice was being sought.

Region reached out to the owner of the Sydney and Wagga-based graphic design studio, former Charles Sturt University graphic design lecturer Michael Agzarian, about the imagery and the decision to put it in his storefront.

Mr Agzarian claimed it was a parody of the 1960s World War II TV sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. He said he would provide further comment later in the day, but has not responded to Region’s further phone calls.

The sitcom centres on Allied prisoners of war in Germany pulling schemes over their inept Nazi captors, including the fictional Colonel Wilhelm Klink and Sergeant Hans Schultz.

Mr McCormack has since confirmed that he has taken the matter to local police, stating that “if this is Mr Agzarian’s attempt at a joke, it isn’t funny”.

“A display in a Wagga Wagga storefront window showing me in a Nazi-like uniform has been reported to police,” Mr McCormack said.

“Advision has also depicted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer in World War II-era German uniforms.

“This is beyond disgraceful. The Nazis killed six million Jews in the Holocaust. This remains one of the worst mass murders in human history.

“The Nazis were pure evil. To be depicted as one of them is as insulting as it is vile.

“If this is his idea of a joke, Hogan’s Heroes or otherwise, he needs to take a long deep look at himself. Wagga will not stand for this, kids who get off on school buses across the road don’t need to see it and people walking past don’t want to be subject to it.”

Since the police were notified, Advision has blurred the image of Mr McCormack but has left the remaining depictions of Mr Palmer, Ms Rinehart and Mr Dutton the same.

This isn’t the first time Mr McCormack and Advision have clashed over political imagery.

In July 2024, Mr McCormack spoke out about what he believed to be anti-Semitic imagery following Advision’s decision to showcase a poster mocking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The uncensored version of the poster uses a four-letter expletive and labels the Israeli Prime Minister a “war criminal”.

“It is disgracefully un-Australian and un-Wagga-like and this kind of morally repugnant language does not belong in a publicly facing shopfront where children can read it … or anyone else anywhere, for that matter,” Mr McCormack declared in a media release at the time.

“Everyone bears a responsibility to hold our society to a high level to maintain the lifestyle that, evidently, some in our community take for granted.

“Protest and vouch for what you think is right – it is a fundamental right – but please do so in a respectful way that does not cause further rifts in what is a predominantly peaceful community.”