Australian officials have designated a neo-Nazi organization as the second group to be prohibited under new legislation that makes hate groups illegal.
The organization, previously called the National Socialist Network and also referred to as White Australia, announced it would dissolve after lawmakers enacted the legislation in January that permits certain groups to be outlawed. The legislation was created following the antisemitic assault on a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in December that resulted in 15 deaths.
“They changed their name, but didn’t change the fact that they were still an organization and were still engaging in the same sort of behavior that met the thresholds for this legislation,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated to media in Canberra on Friday.
The prohibition, effective at Friday’s conclusion, makes supporting, financing, training for, recruiting for, joining or leading the organization illegal, including if it reorganizes with a different identity, Burke explained. Violations carry penalties of up to 15 years imprisonment.
The Islamist organization Hibzt ut-Tahrir became the first group prohibited under the hate speech legislation in March. Both that group and the National Socialist Network were specifically named by legislators and government officials as the law’s main focus.
The legislation enabled authorities to ban hate organizations that didn’t qualify as terrorist groups under Australia’s existing definitions. It was part of multiple measures implemented to combat antisemitic hatred following the Bondi attack that shocked the nation.
The national security agency ASIO determines if an organization qualifies for designation as a hate group, and a government minister must subsequently authorize the ban. Requirements include that an organization’s actions could heighten violence risks and that it has promoted or participated in hate crimes.
“None of this will stop bigoted people from having horrific ideologies,” Burke stated. “But it does prevent this group from organizing, from meeting, and prevents some of the sorts of horrific bigoted rallies that we’ve seen around our country.”
The disbanded group’s leader Thomas Sewell faces trial on charges connected to an assault he allegedly led against an Indigenous protest site last August. Masked individuals attacked the Melbourne camp during an anti-immigration demonstration, wounding three people.
Sewell has entered not guilty pleas to his five charges. A separate investigation into the white supremacist shooting deaths of 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 determined that Sewell had tried to recruit the shooter, Brenton Tarrant, into another white nationalist organization two years prior to the mosque killings.
Burke rejected claims that the National Socialist Network had truly disbanded. The organization posted on its Telegram account in January that it would dissolve to prevent member arrests, according to Australian media reports.
The minister indicated his administration was ready for court challenges from the banned organizations.
Prior to the Bondi shooting in 2024, Australia implemented a national prohibition on Nazi salutes and displaying swastikas and other Nazi imagery. This followed months of antisemitic incidents targeting synagogues and Jewish businesses and schools in Sydney and Melbourne.
