UK Citizen to Be Deported from Australia over Neo-Nazi ‘White Australia’ Links

Melbourne, January 8: A British citizen living in Perth has had his visa cancelled and is being deported from Australia over alleged links to the neo-Nazi group “White Australia”, as authorities step up action against extremist and hate-based organisations.

The man was detained by immigration authorities on Tuesday, with a senior member of the group’s Western Australia branch confirming the arrest on social media. According to the ABC, the man had been living in Australia for several years after moving to WA from the east coast. His visa was cancelled on character grounds and he is now being held in immigration detention.

A representative of White Australia described the man as “one of our men and a good friend” and claimed he had not broken any laws or taken part in political activism. He suggested the deportation was due to the man “doing boxing on weekends with other white men”, a claim rejected by authorities.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the Labor government had “zero tolerance for bigotry and hate.”
“If you don’t like Australia, you can leave,” he told the ABC.

The deportation comes amid heightened security and political scrutiny following the December 14 Bondi Beach terror attack, allegedly carried out by Islamist extremists Naveed Akram and Sajid Akram. In the wake of the attack, the government pledged to fast-track visa cancellations and deportations of hate preachers, extremists and neo-Nazi figures.

White Australia is widely regarded as the political front of the National Socialist Network (NSN), a neo-Nazi group that has reportedly sought to register as a political party with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

NSW Premier Chris Minns has warned that registering such a party faces a very high legal threshold.
“To register a political party you need 750 people prepared to sign the register,” he said.
“That would mean 750 people publicly identifying themselves as being associated with neo-Nazis.”

Minns added that the Electoral Commissioner is required to apply a public interest test when considering such applications, and a “nakedly racist organisation” would be at serious risk of failing that test.

Last week, NSW Police launched an investigation into the distribution of “White Australia” flyers in Newcastle, which Minns described as “an incitement to racial hatred.”

NSW laws passed in February last year make intentionally inciting racial hatred a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison.

The latest deportation follows that of Matthew Gruter, a South African national who was removed from Australia in early December after his visa was cancelled for taking part in an anti-Semitic rally outside the NSW Parliament organised by the National Socialist Network.

The federal government has signalled that further visa cancellations and deportations will follow as part of a broader crackdown on extremist and hate-based movements across Australia.

Source: news.com.au