‘That’s a lie’: Joyce fury over claim he had meeting with neo-Nazis in Canberra

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has angrily denied holding a meeting with prominent neo-Nazis in Canberra earlier this month, after news outlet Crikey sent him an email alleging he spent two hours talking with the extremists at the local casino one evening.

Joyce’s denial of the interaction comes just weeks after Australia’s neo-Nazi movement declared it would back One Nation’s path to government if the High Court overturns a ban on its new political party.

Speaking to radio station 2GB on Wednesday, Joyce said he attended the Canberra Casino a fortnight ago for a social visit with a “good mate”, and was later approached by a group “unbeknownst” to him.

“After a while, I start to get a little bit worried about them because they start talking about Anglo-Celtic and immigration and stuff like that. So I quietly make my way away. They go back to their table. Apparently, they are the … National Socialists,” Joyce said.

“Now, the story that they’re running around is that I arrived with them. That’s a lie. There was an organised meeting with them. That’s a lie. I left with them. That’s a lie. Did I actually even know who they were when they came up? No, I didn’t.

“I don’t follow the Nazi Party, but they seemed like weird dudes, and I made sure we stopped the conversation. And I went back and talked to some tradies from the Central Coast. They were a lot more sensible.”

An email from a Crikey journalist to Joyce seen by this masthead reads: “We understand Mr Joyce entered and left the casino with a group of National Socialist Network members including Hugo Lennon and Thomas Sewell, staying for approximately two hours sitting and talking together, and at a point discussed the group’s ongoing legal matter before the High Court.”

The email requested comment and informed Joyce an article would be published at midday on Wednesday.

In a second media appearance on Wednesday morning, Joyce said he found neo-Nazis to be “disgraceful” and that he “can’t stand them”.

“My family fought against the fascists, I don’t want anything to do with them at all,” he told News24, formerly Sky News.

The National Socialist Network, an openly neo-Nazi group, is petitioning the High Court to overturn laws passed after the Bondi massacre that outlawed neo-Nazi and Islamist groups.

Thomas Sewell – a notorious neo-Nazi who has called for a “race war” – and a team of lawyers are arguing the federal ban on the NSN’s successor, the White Australia Party, should be struck down because the Commonwealth was acting outside its power and was breaching the implied freedom of political communication and the separation of powers.

A court decision to strike down the laws would be a serious defeat for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s post-Bondi crackdown on hate groups and, according to Sewell, it would “assist the creation of a Pauline Hanson prime ministership”.

“Our purpose would be to support One Nation in forming government,” Sewell said outside the High Court on Thursday in a video posted on social media.

“I believe that a factor in why the Labor government has decided to pass this legislation was not only because of the hysteria of the Israeli lobby, but also because they know that we can assist One Nation in forming government.

“If this legislation is not overturned by the High Court, it could mean the difference between Pauline Hanson winning the election or not.”

Crikey editor Alisha Rouse said Joyce was contacted for comment as a matter of standard practice.