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A senior member of the neo-Nazi group which held an anti-Jewish protest outside NSW Parliament is a South African national who works for a major engineering firm that has held contracts with the Australian Defence Department and NSW government.
Matthew Gruter, who moved to Sydney with his wellness influencer wife about three years ago, was among the 60-odd black-clad Nazis who stood alongside an anti-Jewish banner outside parliament on Saturday.
Matthew Gruter (third from left) with other members of the NSN outside NSW Parliament on Saturday.
Gruter, a civil engineer, is a senior member of the NSW chapter of the National Socialist Network, Australia’s biggest neo-Nazi group. He – along with dozens of other members of the group – have been identified by the anti-fascist research group White Rose Society after they appeared at the protest unmasked.
The members of the NSN include an aspiring rapper who works as a personal trainer at a gym in one of Sydney’s most multicultural suburbs, as well as an English-as-a-second-language teacher and a former bar manager who is before the courts facing domestic violence charges.
One IT worker, from Sydney’s north shore, has been let go by his employer after he was spotted in pictures from the rally by locals who knew him. A manager at a regional branch of Australia Post and a young race car driver have also been identified. Contacted on Wednesday afternoon with questions, the driver responded with a laughing emoji.
The group appeared alongside senior neo-Nazi leaders including Joel Davis and NSW figurehead Jack Eltis, at a made-for-social-media demonstration which has sparked criticism of police who allowed it to go ahead unopposed.
Fallout from the protest has dominated NSW parliament this week, with Premier Chris Minns flagging changes to protest laws after Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said police were unable to oppose Saturday’s demonstration under current laws.
Gruter frequently appears alongside his wife on her wellness and mumfluencer Instagram page, posing in cutesy photos wearing Christmas jumpers or spruiking sponsored content to her 20,000 followers.
There is no sign – beyond one image in which he poses wearing the distinctive black jacket favoured by the NSN – of his extremist political views. Gruter, who lists a Sydney-based engineering firm Aurecon as his employer in an online job profile, is a frequent attendee of NSN events, including the August March for Australia anti-immigration rally where the group led chants of “heil Australia”.
Aurecon, which boasts of contracts with the ADF and NSW government agencies, did not respond to questions, including whether Gruter is still employed by the company.
Matthew Gruter has appeared regularly on his influencer wife’s social media, including promoting sponsored content.Credit: Instagram
Contacted by the Herald, Gruter did not answer questions, including how he squared his status as a migrant with the NSN’s stated opposition to all migration. He replied to questions via email saying: “since when is loving and advocating for your own People (sic) a crime?”
The Herald does not suggest Gruter’s wife shares his political views.
After she was contacted for comment, her husband responded: “I note that you intend to drag my wife into this and her ability to earn an income. Absolute scum behaviour and angle.
“You people want us unemployed, kicked out the street, want our family broken up and my newborn to starve,” he said.
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“All because I disagree with you politically. What you try to do to us personally is far worse than any of our general political ideology.”
He has previously been photographed leading NSN training sessions and has been spotted wearing the silver wristband reserved for NSN leaders in photographs with his pregnant wife. The wristband is inscribed with the words “blood and honour”, a slogan associated with the Hitler Youth.
The Department of Home Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
Also among those identified after the rally are Martin Przybylek, a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness in Fairfield. Przybylek, an aspiring rapper with eight subscribers on his YouTube page, was identified via his distinctive tattoos. Fairfield, in Sydney’s west, is among the city’s most multicultural suburbs. He has posed for photos alongside non-white colleagues on the gym’s social media.
Aspiring rapper and personal trainer Martin Przybylek.
Przybylek did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, Anytime Fitness said it was not aware of Przybylek’s involvement in the NSN and would investigate.
“Anytime Fitness is committed to maintaining a safe, inclusive and respectful environment across all of our clubs and workplaces,” a spokeswoman said.
Also identified was Christien Mutton, who has previously appeared on social media teaching English as a second language at a private Sydney college. Mutton did not respond to a request for comment.
Adam Carrig outside NSW Parliament House on Saturday.
Another, Adam Carrig, a former bar owner who is facing domestic violence related charges of assault and stalking or intimidation, denied attending the rally when contacted by the Herald and then hung up.
In response to a follow-up text message he wrote: “FINAL WARNING: STOP messaging me now. Your messages are unwanted. Any more = police report, eSafety complaint, court. This is your only warning. 11 Nov 2025”.
Also present at the rally was long-time Sydney NSN member Oscar Tuckfield, whose neo-Nazi infiltration of the NSW Young Nationals made headlines in 2018. Another, senior northern NSW leader Gabe Seymour, is an ex-pharmacy student who previously led the NSN’s Queensland chapter and has posted online glorifying the Christchurch terrorist and sharing digital blueprints for 3D-printed weapons.
The NSN has been on a recruitment tear of late, flooding social media with propaganda videos with the help of a close friend of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate. Recent stunts, including ambushing politicians on the federal election trail and secretly running the national anti-immigration rallies March for Australia, have been revealed by this masthead as a co-ordinated neo-Nazi push to rebrand nationally as “everyday Australians” as it seeks to form a neo-Nazi political party called White Australia.
In NSW, where the NSN expects the easiest election prospects, its local chapter has been growing rapidly. While it had just a handful of regular members in 2022, it draws about 70 to monthly training bootcamps.
This masthead previously revealed the identities of several Victorian-based NSN members, including soldiers, as part of a major investigation in 2021.
Others include an Australia Post worker and a young race car driver. Another, an IT worker, has been fired by his employer after he was identified by locals following the protest. The Herald has chosen not to name them yet because they could not be reached for comment.
NSN leader Thomas Sewell has said in closed NSN chatlogs obtained by this masthead that most members are not “out” as unmasked Nazis. Some hold high-paying jobs in useful places such as those “with government contracts”, Sewell has claimed, as part of the NSN’s plan to recruit men with access to money and influence.
Others in the Australian Nazi group have direct ties to proscribed international terror groups and many members have been convicted or charged with violent assaults, including Sewell. But the NSN itself has not been banned in Australia.
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