Parliamentary committee backs listing of White Australia

A parliamentary committee has backed the federal government’s decision to list the neo-Nazi group White Australia as a prohibited hate group, finding it has engaged in conduct constituting hate crimes against Australians.

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) presented its report on Tuesday, concluding that White Australia met the legislative criteria for listing, that the listing had been properly made, and that there was no reason to disallow it.

White Australia — formerly known as the National Socialist Network and the European Australia Movement, and now also operating as the “White Australia Party” — was listed in May under a new framework created by the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Act 2026, passed in January.

It was the second organisation listed under the laws. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has described the group’s ideology as grounded in racism, neo-Nazism and white supremacy.

PJCIS chair, Senator Raff Ciccone, said the committee was satisfied White Australia had engaged in hate crimes and that the listing was necessary to protect Australians from harm. “For too long, organisations like White Australia have been able to spread hate and create a pathway for others to engage in violence,” he said. “Australia will not tolerate groups that promote hatred, normalise extremist rhetoric and put the safety of Australians at risk.”

The report notes that the group has been involved in a range of acts, including displaying banners containing racial and ethnic slurs, giving the Nazi salute at public protests, and chanting Nazi slogans such as “Hail Victory” and “Blood and Honour”.

The government’s explanatory statement said White Australia had consistently promoted racist and hateful propaganda about Jewish people, Asians, Muslims, Indigenous Australians and other migrant ethnicities, and had distributed propaganda to regional communities stating “Australia For the White Man”.

The committee also cited the group’s attack on Camp Sovereignty, an Aboriginal protest site in Melbourne, in August 2025, and its protest outside NSW Parliament House in November 2025, at which members displayed antisemitic material and chanted slogans. That November protest featured in evidence to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion last week, when a banner reading “abolish the Jewish lobby” was described by counsel assisting as invoking an old antisemitic trope of pervasive Jewish influence.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), which made a submission supporting the listing, argued that the group’s objective was to “normalise racial supremacy, intimidate targeted communities, recruit adherents to extremist ideology and create the social conditions in which violence against minorities and opponents becomes thinkable, then acceptable, and ultimately more likely”. Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism also supported the listing.

The committee received 23 submissions, most either for or against the listing. Some opponents, including the Free Speech Union of Australia, called for the regulation to be disallowed, arguing the ban was undemocratic given the group’s aspiration to become a political party, though the union stressed that nothing in its submission should be mistaken for sympathy with the group’s positions.

Under the listing, it is a criminal offence to be a member of, recruit for, or provide training, funds or material support to White Australia. The group has challenged the validity of the laws in the High Court, with a hearing set for September.