Kooyong, Melbourne, VIC – Hitler moustaches, devil horns and the words “right wing facist (sic)” have appeared on posters of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in his Melbourne electorate of Kooyong.

Texts were used to deface a number of posters of the Jewish MP in Hawthorn overnight.

Prime minister Scott Morrison told reporters on Saturday the vandalism was “appalling”, and called for anyone with information about the matter to cooperate with authorities.

“This is about crimes and hate … this should have no place in our elections, absolutely no place,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Frydenberg tweeted his abhorrence to the “cowardly and criminal act” and said the incident was “about a broader and disturbing trend in society of antisemitism and intolerance”.

“The latest act of vandalism in Kooyong using Nazi symbols on a billboard of mine is an insult to every victim of the Holocaust and Australian servicemen and women who fought against Nazi tyranny”.

My statement following the latest act of vandalism in Kooyong: https://t.co/2V4al5YdUj pic.twitter.com/phkDyXOCrP — Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) May 4, 2019

The treasurer said Holocaust Remembrance Day was this week, and the vandalism “shows how ignorant the perpetrators are of the horrors of history”.

Mr Frydenberg’s mother was a Hungarian Jew who arrived in Australia as a stateless child after escaping the Holocaust.