Australia’s most notorious neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, has been listed as an illegal hate group by the federal government.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he was making the call under hate speech legislation introduced after the Bondi massacre.
As of midnight, it’s now a criminal offence, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, to join or provide support to the far-right group, which has gone by various names.
The neo-Nazi group, which has also gone by the names White Australia and European Australian Movement, announced in January they would disband to dodge the new laws.
But authorities said its members have still been active. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he made the decision based on advice from Australian spy agency ASIO, that the group is “engaged in behaviour that increase risks of violence”.
“Today, the organisation that would be colloquially known as the neo-Nazis, but has gone through different names – the European Australian Movement, the National Socialist Network (NSN) and White Australia – has been listed as the second prohibited hate group under the changes that were made to the Criminal Code,” Burke said.
“This sends a clear message to those who believe in racial supremacy that their views are not welcome in Australian society.”
The group have caused outrage with public demonstrations that have included marching through Melbourne’s CBD, and rallying outside NSW parliament. The Neo Nazi group have also attended anti-trans protest rallies.
The NSN is the second hate group to be banned, following Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir back in March.
Image: TikTok‘Horrific, bigoted rallies’
Tony Burke said criminalising the National Socialist network group won’t “stop bigoted people from having ideas”.
“But it does prevent this group from organising, from meeting, and prevents some of the sorts of horrific, bigoted rallies that we’ve seen around our country,” he said.
Back in January, the leaders of the NSN announced they were “shutting down all operations” to “mitigate the risk of individuals being arrested and charged under these new draconian laws.”
But Burke said this wasn’t true, and warned the group won’t evade the law by changing its name.
“Effectively, what they did, for want of a better term, is phoenix,” he said, referring to a term in which insolvent companies reappear under a new name.
“They thought by announcing that they had disbanded, that they had evaded these laws — they haven’t.”
Burke said while the group “are still an organisation and still engaged in the exact sort of behaviour that met the threshold for this legislation”.
NSN leader Thomas Sewell announced on Friday members of the group plan to challenge the hate laws in the High Court, ABC News reported.
The group has crowdfunded more than $150,000 to fund the legal challenge, per the ABC.
ASIO director general Mike Burgess said last November he feared the NSN’s “increasingly violent propaganda” could inspire political violence.
“At its core, the National Socialist Network is anti-immigrant, anti-Indigenous, anti-gay, anti-Jew, anti-Islam and anti-anything that does not fit its white anglo-centric worldview,” he said.
Burgess said he was “deeply concerned” by the group’s “hateful, divisive rhetoric and increasingly violent propaganda, and the growing likelihood these things will prompt spontaneous violence, particularly in response to perceived provocation.”
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