The first neo-Nazi rally in New South Wales, authorised by the NSW Police, took place on November 8, with police approval.
White Australia, the rebranded National Socialist Network (NSN), had lodged a Form 1 with the NSW Police two weeks beforehand. Included in it were its reasons to demonstrate against the “Jewish lobby”.
While it was overtly antisemitic, the antisemitism envoy Gillian Segal has said nothing.
While Executive Council of Australian Jewry spokesperson Alex Ryvchin condemned the rally, he followed that up with saying police should not be blamed and they need more powers to stop such protests. He pointed the finger at the anti-genocide protests over the last two years, implying that the pro-Palestine rallies were somehow responsible for spurring on the Nazis.
Mal Lanyon, the new NSW Police Commissioner, has told every media outlet that senior police, specifically deputy commissioner Peter Thurtell, did not notify him that neo-Nazis were rallying. Thurtell has now apologised to Lanyon.
It turns out that police had scrutinised the Form 1 a week before.
Around 70 members of the National Socialist Network (NSN), largely Anglo Celtic, gathered in front of NSW parliament at 10am. The NSN has also recently announced it is trying to register a new party — White Australia — to contest the next federal election.
The men wore special black jackets holding a banner which read: “Abolish the Jewish Lobby”. NSN member Joel Davis used a loudspeaker to announce they were protesting Labor’s hate crimes and anti-protest laws at the behest of the “Jewish lobby” — an antisemitic trope.
Davis held a similar anti-Jewish rally in front of Victorian Parliament last December.
NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns has been on a campaign of moral panic around antisemitism for the last two years, trying to blur the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
He rushed in new laws in February after a series of arson and graffiti attacks on Jewish people’s properties on Gadigal and Dharug land, in Greater Sydney, last summer.
Minns expressed his anger over the “pissants” who lined up for the Nazi rally, but focusing on their reference to the ANZAC legend rather than their antisemitism. Since then he has been talking up his “cure all” — the need for new anti-protest laws and new criminal offences.
The inquiry into the February anti-protest laws is still to be tabled. Palestine supporters and justice advocates and others have criticised Labor’s response as overkill, given it was not clear who had committed the attacks and there were already laws enough to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Anyone wanting to protest in NSW is required to lodge a “Form 1” with the NSW police, which outlines their intentions and goes primarily to the traffic section. If the police do not challenge, it means the event is authorised.
This process means that protesters who march on streets cannot be penalised with criminal, or summary offences, that usually apply to obstructing roads.
The neo-Nazis appear to have lodged their form even though they were not going to march.
The second outcome of lodging a Form 1 is that police are detailed to be present, as they were for the NSN rally. They stood there watching on.
Minns is now suggesting that new protest laws are needed and has moved to legislate new move-on powers that the Supreme Court recently ruled were unconstitutional. He is implying that the state cannot prevent Nazis from holding protests.
“It’s likely the case that we need to give police more legislative powers to stop this kind of naked hatred and racism on Sydney streets; that is the truth of the matter,” Minns said.
“We’re looking at that very closely. We don’t want to tolerate, and we don’t believe we should tolerate, a kind of city where that white power hatred … is on Sydney streets.”
Liberal leader Mark Speakman questioned why the protest was not challenged in the courts and suggested there are laws which could have prevented it.
This is the offence of publicly inciting hatred on ground of race, under section 93ZAA of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). It carries it up to two years in prison and/or a fine of $11,000. This law was passed in February.
The Liberal-National Coalition is reportedly considering introducing laws to limit groups to three rallies a year and require the courts to consider the taxpayer costs of demonstrations.
[Paul Gregoire writes for Sydney Criminal Lawyers where a version of this article was first published.]