These academics defend white nationalism. Their college says that’s ‘freedom of speech’

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An Australian college has defended the “freedom of speech” of two of its senior academics, who promote white nationalism online and in speeches, even as the institution “unequivocally rejects” many of the pair’s public statements.

Campion, a small but influential Catholic higher education college in Sydney, boasts donors such as mining magnate Gina Rinehart and a board including former Liberal minister Zed Seselja.

Campion College defends the freedom of speech of two of its senior academics.

Earlier this month, it launched an investigation into its dean of studies, Stephen McInerney, and senior history lecturer Stephen Chavura after this masthead asked questions about their claims white Australians are being replaced by immigrants.

A petition to “defend the Stephens” was quickly launched by far-right influencers, attracting high-profile supporters such as One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, former Coalition whip George Christensen, and NSW MPs Mark Latham and John Ruddick.

On Wednesday, Campion College said it was “continuing to review various matters” but argued McInerney and Chavura’s comments had been taken out of context. The college did not answer questions about whether the academics were disciplined.

But since the investigation began, McInerney has published further extreme rhetoric, including a suggestion that Hinduism had awoken “diabolical forces” in Australia and that Indian migrants were being brought in by the government to counter a possible insurrection by Chinese Australians.

The associate professor added “Yes” to his retweet of a post that suggested Jewish leaders, including sitting MPs, promoted multiculturalism as a form of “demographic warfare” against Australians with British ancestry.

His colleague, Chavura, recently helped to found “Australia’s Sons”, an all-male club he hoped would become a “standing force of hundreds of thousands of men” defending Anglo-Celtic heritage, striking fear into “anti-Australia politicians”.

He remains in charge of the club’s group chats online.

Those chats, this masthead can reveal, include several known neo-Nazis, some with Nazi icons in their display pictures, as well as former members of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys, and have frequently featured racist and antisemitic views.

Stephen McInerney is a former deputy chief executive of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation.

Both Chavura and McInerney have told this masthead that they reject Nazism outright but wish to defend the interests of Anglo-Europeans as an ethnic group. This masthead does not suggest otherwise.

Chavura has called multiculturalism a “cancer” and a “poison”.

McInerney, a former deputy head of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, has said the White Australia policy did not go far enough and that the time would come for political parties devoted to “our people”, meaning white Australians.

At a March for Australia rally in August, which was organised by neo-Nazi leaders, McInerney spoke of “a people bound together by the crimson thread of blood” and called for white Australians to become a “supermajority” in the country.

Stephen McInerney speaking at a March for Australia rally in Sydney.

In response, Daniel Ang, who works for the Sydney Catholic archdiocese, wrote an opinion piece criticising McInerney’s “portrayal of Australia as fundamentally an Anglo-European project”, which “dangerously approaches an ethnonationalism that the Church explicitly condemns”.

Campion said on Wednesday that it rejected the “premise and conclusions” of this masthead’s previous reporting on the academics, even as it condemned some of the pair’s public statements.

College president Paul Morrissey said their comments had been made in a personal capacity and that there was no evidence either Chavura or McInerney had treated students unfairly.

The college, which caters to a small cohort of undergraduates with a focus on the classics of Western thought, affirmed “the dignity of every human person, regardless of their race and religion” but also said it believed in academic freedom, freedom of speech and robust debate.

“A commitment to freedom of speech is meaningless if it doesn’t extend to people who say unpopular or even, to some, offensive things,” Morrissey said.

Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher, a supporter of Campion, did not respond to questions.

Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long, a former refugee and a migrant of Asian background, “does not share these views”, a spokesperson said. “He is committed to lead the local church united in its effort to honour the dignity and worth of every human person”.

Both McInerney and Chavura are supporting this weekend’s round of March for Australia rallies, which are now advertised online with the tagline “Resist or Cease to Exist”.

Stephen Chavura is a regular Sky News commentator as well as an academic.

Chavura has previously told this masthead that he envisaged Australia’s Sons in part as an educational and fitness group but also a force to deter “leftist thugs” at “pro-Australia rallies”.

On Thursday, he said he was no longer running Australia’s Sons, but stressed the group was “in no way sympathetic with Nazism or racism and does not allow Nazis to become members”.

Chat logs leaked to this masthead of the group’s closed members’ chats online reveal that while some known neo-Nazi accounts have been kicked out or have left the group, several remained as of Thursday. Chavura was still in charge of the chat group as an administrator.

Recently, Chavura pushed back and cautioned more extreme elements in the chat. “Folks here need to understand that the average patriot who turns up to a pro-Australia rally is not like the race and Jew-obsessed among us,” he said. “If some of you wrote the constitution for Australia’s Sons we’d literally get 20 people signing up, the rest of the patriots being turned off.”

Interrogated by neo-Nazis in the group, including convicted criminal Jimeone Roberts, Chavura later defended himself for not attending August’s Nazi-run March for Australia in person, noting he had been one of its “biggest promoters online”.

He told this masthead that members of the group’s closed chat were “not necessarily members” of Australia’s Sons, that “quite a few have been ejected” and that some “criticise Australia’s Sons precisely because it is not Nazi or racist”.

Some members of Australia’s most prominent neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, have left the Australia’s Sons chat in recent weeks and hit out at Chavura’s perceived support for Israel.

The Campion College library named after Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart.

But key NSN figure Joel Davis has repeatedly praised McInerney for his comments on Jewish people.

“I do not know Joel Davis, but hope and pray that he will abandon National Socialism, will reject neo-paganism and embrace the sweet yoke of Jesus Christ,” McInerney told this masthead.

McInerney said his comments on immigration were in line with a range of former prime ministers, dating to the 1960s, who had maintained and supported the Immigration Act, better known as the White Australia Policy.

“They were self-evidently not National Socialists (Nazis) and neither am I,” he said.

As for his post linking Jewish leaders and multiculturalism, which he vehemently opposes, he said “it is not antisemitic to point to such facts, even critically”.

McInerney said that to his knowledge he had never been placed under investigation for misconduct by Campion and that he had received no disciplinary action or warning.

“I enjoy very good professional relationships with students and staff from all backgrounds,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Ramsay Centre, which has launched classics programs and scholarships at a range of Australian universities, has confirmed that McInerney left the organisation at the start of last year.

“Dr McInerney’s views are not shared in any way by the Ramsay Centre board or executive,” a spokeswoman said.

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