Far-right politics in Australia
Since the 1980s, the term has mainly been used to describe those who advocate for preservation of what they perceive to be Christian Anglo-Australian/European Australian culture, and those who campaign against Aboriginal land rights, multiculturalism, immigration and asylum seekers.
Since 2001, Australia has seen the formation of several neo-Nazi, neo-Fascist or alt-right groups such as the True Blue Crew, the United Patriots Front, Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party and the Antipodean Resistance, and others.
[1] Although recognizing that it is not an homogeneous movement,[6] Dean et al. have identified six fundamental cores among the Australian radical right: opposition towards immigration, anti-establishment and anti-elitist rhetoric, the protection of western values and culture, a radical regeneration of the democratic system within the democratic system, a return to traditional values in opposition to multiculturalism, and a support to a strong state committed to law and order.
The group comprised mostly returned servicemen and claimed a membership of 50,000 at its peak, including prominent members of society such as aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith[9] and former Mayor of North Sydney Hubert Primrose.
[18] The group, which existed for about eight years from 1931, comprised several senior army officers, including Col. Francis Derham, a Melbourne lawyer, and Lt. Col. Edmund Herring, later Chief Justice of Victoria.
Eric Campbell established the party after he had met with European fascists and National Socialists such as Sir Oswald Mosley and Joachim von Ribbentrop.
The group was anti-Semitic and national socialist, advocating the corporate state and a political alliance with the Axis powers of Germany,[22] Italy and Japan.
The group was disbanded in March 1942, when a number of its members were secretly interned by the Australian government on suspicion that they might attempt to provide help to Japanese invaders.
The party was founded in 1962 by University of Adelaide physics student Ted Cawthron and Sydney council worker Don Lindsay.
[32][33] In 1989, Saleam was convicted of being an accessory before the fact in regard to organising the attempted assassination of African National Congress representative Eddie Funde.
The group's logo features the black sun and Totenkopf (skull head) with an Akubra hat, a laurel wreath and a swastika.
[56] Antipodean Resistance promotes and incites hatred and violence, as illustrated in its anti-Jewish and anti-homosexual posters, with graphic images of shooting Jews and homosexuals in the head.
Cerminara has a significant criminal record, including convictions for assault, high-range drink-driving and breaching apprehended violence orders.
He resigned from the Liberal Party after anti-Semitic articles written by him emerged, including airing a theory that the Port Arthur massacre was master-minded by Jews, as well as a photo of him gesturing with a Nazi salute in front of a swastika.
[34] In 2016 the Dingoes were described in a 2016 news report as "young, educated and alternative right", comparing the group to the Identitarian movement in Europe.
[82] The group planned a 2018 conference in Sydney, dubbed DingoCon, at which US alt-right figure Mike Enoch of The Right Stuff was invited to speak.
[86] The Lads Society is a far-right white nationalist extremist group founded by several former members of the United Patriots Front in late 2017, with club houses in Sydney and Melbourne.
[87] The Lads Society came to national prominence after it staged a rally in St Kilda, Victoria, targeting the local African Australian community.
[89] Canadian alt-right activist Lauren Southern and white nationalist Stefan Molyneux met with Lads Society members during their visit to Australia.[when?
His white supremacist agenda was clearly shown as he outlined plans which included the creation of "Anglo-European" enclaves in Australian cities, encouraging the "speed and ferocity of the decay" of society to help foment a "race war" by such tactics as exploiting the "African gangs" trope used by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and other mainstream politicians.
The party ran candidates at the 2019 Australian federal election in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, but failed to win any seats.
[61] In March 2021, Victoria Police's counter-terrorism command charged Sewell with affray, recklessly causing injury, and unlawful assault after he allegedly punched a security guard working for the Nine Network in Melbourne's Docklands.
Their tactics included spreading propaganda about protecting Australia's European identity as well as opening businesses and buying property to create wealth, using this to try to influence the election of state and federal parliamentarians.
Part of the group's plans was to create a kind of "pioneer Europa", where people subscribing to such views would live, governed by a sympathetic mayor.
[98][99][100] The Patriotic Youth League was mainly active in the northern suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, and played a large role in the 2005 Cronulla riots.
[105][106][107][108] After observing many Reclaim Australia rallies and interviewing participants, author John Safran described it as a loose collective of different groups such as the United Patriots Front and Danny Nalliah's Catch the Fire Ministries.
[117] Soldiers of Odin (SOO) is an anti-immigrant group founded in Kemi, Finland, in October 2015, in the midst of the European migrant crisis.
[122] Their recruitment rhetoric included exaggerating illegal entry to the country, crime perpetrated by immigrants and the threat of Islamic terrorism, targeting mainly Anglo-Australian men; they also used the "exotic Norse mythology" to attract far-right sympathisers who were willing to take public action.
[128] In December 2019 a member of True Blue Crew, Phillip Galea, was convicted of terrorism charges relating to planned bombings of the Victorian Trades Hall and other left wing organisations in Melbourne.
Tarrant had expressed support for two Australian far-right organizations, the United Patriots Front and the True Blue Crew online, and repeatedly praised Blair Cottrell, a neo-Nazi and former leader of the UPF, affectionately calling him "Emperor Blair Cottrell" during a celebration of Donald Trump being elected as President of the United States in 2016; he also donated money to the UPF.
