The Australian government has formally banned the network formerly known as the National Socialist Network after concluding that its attempted rebrand was a legal dodge rather than a genuine dissolution.
When the NSN, led by Thomas Sewell, announced its disbandment in January, it claimed the move was intended to shield members from prosecution under the new federal hate group legislation. It was not, as the group was at pains to stress at the time, an ideological retreat.
Linked to Patriotic Alternative
The network, which had close links with Patriotic Alternative in the UK, resurfaced under the name White Australia and continued operating much as before, the same personnel, the same methods, the same organising infrastructure.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke designated it a prohibited hate group on 15 May, making it only the second organisation banned under the legislation since it passed earlier this year, after the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Same organisation
Burke was blunt about what had happened. The group had “changed their name, but didn’t change the fact that they were still an organisation and were still engaging in the same sort of behaviour that met the thresholds for this legislation.”
The ban covers the network regardless of whatever name it chooses to operate under in future.
The practical consequences are considerable. It is now a criminal offence to support, fund, train, recruit, join or direct the group in any form. Organisers face up to fifteen years in prison; ordinary members seven.
The ban extends explicitly to any successor entity, closing off the most obvious escape route.
Risk of violence
ASIO, Australia’s domestic security agency, determines whether an organisation meets the threshold for designation, with criteria including a demonstrated risk of violence and a history of advocating or engaging in hate crimes, before the minister gives final approval.
Thomas Sewell, who led a violent NSN assault on a First Nations cultural site in Melbourne last August, remains on remand awaiting trial.
His co-leader Jacob Hersant and prominent member Joel Davis face their own separate proceedings.
