The state government should urgently turn its attention to drafting legislation to stop neo-Nazis from registering as a political party, leading experts in law and extremism have said.
Premier Chris Minns also warned those who wanted to sign up to the neo-Nazi-linked White Australia party that they risked being publicly exposed as racists, as the electoral commission is likely powerless to prevent such groups from registering.
NSW Premier Chris Minns wants to strengthen hate speech and protest laws. Credit: Sam Mooy
As the government continues to grapple with fallout from the sight of 60 black-clad neo-Nazis rallying outside Parliament House on Saturday, with the approval of police, Minns has flagged legal and procedural changes that would prevent such a demonstration from happening again.
Constitutional law expert and UNSW Professor Rosalind Dixon said the government should, as a priority, move to give the electoral commissioner the power to refuse to register groups that include racial vilification as a policy platform.
“Germany has a concept called militant democracy, the idea is that you can ban parties when the very purpose of those parties is to threaten democracy itself,” she said.
“It will be quite difficult to tell when a party seeks registration what its character is, because the commission is making the decision based on the name and constitution, not the conduct … often they would be able to hide their true purpose”.
For now, the NSW Electoral Commission can refuse to register a party on a narrow set of factors, primarily if its name or logo is offensive. The commission will need to determine whether the name White Australia is itself offensive, as it invokes racist immigration policies of the 20th century.
The Australian Electoral Commission has no scope to consider party ideology nor concerns raised by law enforcement when determining if registration should be granted, a spokesperson said.
NSW neo-Nazi Jack Eltis, a leader in the NSN and the man who submitted the form to police about Saturday’s rally, brags the group is 90 per cent of the way to registering and contesting the next election. He has described the party as a means to an end for the racist mission, and a way to provide legal protection for members and a propaganda and fundraising arm.
Extremism researcher Dr Levi West, a research fellow at ANU, said Australia is in desperate need of reforms to the electoral system to protect it from neo-Nazis, who, he said, were growing in numbers judging by their propaganda and meet-ups.
“You would assume there is a broader community of people who don’t want to show up to a protest all in black, but sympathise with the movement … there is a lot of value in Australia exploring ways to protect the liberal democratic order,” West said.
The group needs a minimum of 750 members in NSW and 1500 federally, and must be registered by March to make the ballot for the next state election. The state government says it is open to electoral reform, but any changes to the powers of the electoral commission would come in the next year, giving the parliament a slim window of a few sitting weeks before the NSN reaches its March deadline.
Minns said on Wednesday anyone thinking of adding their name to the NSN’s growing list of supporters should consider whether they want to be publicly associated with Nazis.
“Despite what the organisers of the party will tell you, this information may well become public and you’ll be exposed as a racist,” he said.
Neo-Nazi figure Joel Davis earlier this month attempted to convince his supporters to hand over their names and contact information, saying in a livestream his database is encrypted and the electoral commission “has never leaked”.
Leaking of political party member lists has happened before: in 1998, the names and suburbs of One Nation members were published in a magazine called the Australia/Israel Review.
The premier is still to give a definitive answer on how and why he was not made aware of Saturday’s neo-Nazi rally outside Parliament House as the list of those who did know grows. Police, parliament security, the presiding officers and security at the premier’s department at 52 Martin Place as well as some journalists were aware in the days before the rally.
“If I were to speculate, I would suggest it was because it was on the weekend. The truth of the matter is, people work on the weekend and people coming to the office on the weekend. So a glaring oversight, it’s a reason, not an excuse, and one that we need to fix as soon as possible,” he said.
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