Nazis who rallied at parliament want to enter politics. They think NSW is their best shot

3 months ago 17

Neo-Nazis given the green light to rally outside state parliament have bragged that NSW is their best hope of entering mainstream politics and are recruiting members to register a formal party.

Joel Davis, a key National Socialist Network figure who led a Nazi Hitler Youth chant on the steps of Parliament House on Saturday, told followers last week that a NSW upper house campaign was likely the easiest path to victory as the group tries to rebrand as the White Australia Party.

A National Socialist Network rally held outside NSW parliament on Saturday.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age previously revealed the group was quietly plotting to form a political party in the hopes of standing at the next federal election. Just 750 members are needed to register a party in NSW, and 500 in Victoria.

Davis said Victoria and NSW are where most supporters live, and while they can “cut some deals” with others on the ballot, securing preferences would be difficult “because we’re Nazis”.

“In NSW, in theory, we will get more preferences. You would think so. That’s why we really want to be registered to contest this election in NSW,” he said.

The NSW Electoral Commission has the power to refuse to register a party if the name of the party or its logo is obscene or offensive. The commission did not respond to questions.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, who wants to build on the swastika ban to further outlaw Nazi slogans, said the group should not be able to spread their views “in public forums or civic life”.

Minns declined to say what steps he could take to prevent a White Australia Party from forming.

“That’s not specifically up to me, obviously, the electoral commissioner has a role in relation to the registration of political parties, and we have to work out whether it breaches hate speech laws and laws designed to stop political racial divisions and hatred in our community,” he said.

If the NSN is successful in registering a political party in NSW, they hope to emulate upper house campaigns waged by minor parties such as the NSW Libertarians. Davis named MP John Ruddick as an example of a strategy the neo-Nazis could emulate; and NSN supporters have often targeted Ruddick as a potential ally.

Ruddick said he does not agree with the views of the NSN, but supported their right to form a party.

“We do not live in a liberal democracy if people can’t form a political party. We’ve had since federation one political party that went for a similar agenda as the NSN and that was Fraser Anning’s Conservative National Party, and they got half a per cent of the vote,” Ruddick said.

Ruddick said any efforts to ban the NSN, a White Australia Party or Nazi slogans would result in the organisation going underground or finding new ways to espouse their views.

Jack Eltis, a neo-Nazi who prepared the paperwork for NSW Police before Saturday’s rally, has been presenting seminars to fellow white supremacists about how to boost their message. He has described a potential political party as a way to garner legal protections for the NSN and for fundraising purposes.

While most mainstream parties ask members to attend branch meetings and volunteer at elections, the NSN wants their members to follow “routines and rituals” including a physical training regimen where members are encouraged to meet certain fitness standards.

Last month, Australian Federal Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Nigel Ryan told Senate estimates that the AFP had set up new national security investigations teams to focus on groups such as the NSN, and that he was concerned about the prospect of the group forming a political party.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess last week warned of the NSN’s efforts to enter the mainstream of politics.

“Even if the organisation does not engage in terrorism, I remain deeply concerned by its hateful, divisive rhetoric and increasingly violent propaganda, and the growing likelihood these things will prompt spontaneous violence, particularly in response to perceived provocation,” he said in a Lowy Institute address.

The NSN is not listed as a proscribed terror group in Australia despite the extreme anti-immigrant ideology. After a 2021 investigation by the Herald and the Age revealed how neo-Nazis are thriving in Australian suburbs, former NSW premier and Labor senator Kristina Keneally called for the group to be banned.

“Proscription also exists to send a loud and clear message about what Australia values and what it rejects,” she wrote in the Herald.

A federal government spokesperson said the government listens to advice from agencies, but would not discuss operational matters including potential listing of any groups.

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