Premier’s office and Jewish leaders slams neo-Nazi group National Socialist Movement (NSM) trying to run for parliament

The Victorian government has condemned a neo-Nazi group’s attempt to gain political legitimacy, calling on the electoral commission to reject its application.

National Socialist Movement’s Chris Boyle in push for parliament at federal election.

The Victorian government has called on the electoral commission to reject a neo-Nazi group’s bid to run in future federal elections as it edges closer towards registering as a legitimate party.

The Herald Sun revealed on Wednesday neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement (NSM), was only about 300 registrations away from being able to register itself as a political party in Australia.

The group claims to declare all Australian Jews a “threat to national security” once it is elected to power and “immediately” seize their assets, revoke their citizenship and have them deported.

On Wednesday night the Allan government slammed the group — whose stated goal is the “expulsion of the Jews from Australia” — saying “there is no place in Victoria for their hateful ideology”.

“We stand against this application – and we call on the Australian Electoral Commission to do the same,” a Victorian government spokesman said.

“We have banned Nazi symbols and salutes and we are introducing new laws to unmask these cowards and new powers for police to deal with anti-Semitic vilification.”

The logo of the NSM party.

The neo-Nazi group claims once in power, the wannabe party would also dismantle the Reserve Bank of Australia and “outlaw” usury on money creation by creating a new “nationalised reserve bank and currency”.”

Leader Chris Boyle told the Herald Sun he had a 15-year plan for the group, which included running candidates at the next federal election.

He said the group wanted to get the “first few people into politics” to be able to “inject” their “ideas” into the mainstream in a “sensible, mature and adult fashion” so NSM could begin to “win over hearts and minds”. Mr Boyle, who is based in Queensland, said the NSM had “chapters” of the organisation in every state of Australia except the Northern Territory.

Christian Boyle

The Premier’s office also slammed the opposition leader Brad Battin for not backing new laws banning Nazi symbols and salutes.

“If the Liberal Party were serious about social cohesion – Brad Battin would support those laws, and explain and why he took days to condemn the Nazis turning up to a rally he organised against the Indian community,” the Victorian government said.

In November last year, a group of neo-Nazi’s gatecrashed Brad Battin’s event in Berwick, organised in opposition of the renaming of the Guru Nanak Lake in honour of the founder of Sikhism.

The opposition has been contacted for comment.

Research director of Executive Council of Australian Jewry Julie Nathan said the NSM group was a “minor” neo-Nazi group but it was still surprising they were trying to run for office.

“The Neo-Nazis in the past have said they won’t stand for Parliament because they consider the whole system corrupt and run by the Jews,” she said.

“Perhaps from their perspective, if they’re a candidate in an election, then they can get a lot of their propaganda, a lot of their racism and the ideology out there in the public.”

But Ms Nathan — author of the annual ECAJ report on anti-Semitism in Australia — said it was highly unlikely they would get any seats in Parliament.

“If they ever did get seats that would create massive disruption with everything that’s happening in this country, it would be really bad,” she said.

“Any extremists, whether they’re far right or far left or whatever form of extremism — that’s really bad for the whole of Australia not just minorities.”

Head of politics at Monash University Zareh Ghazarian said extreme groups such as the NSM had always been outside of formal politics in Australia, but trying to become a political party as an avenue to advance their agenda was a “new development”.”

Dr Ghazarian said the rise in the prominence of extreme groups like neo-Nazis in Australian politics was a concern for security experts.

Dr Ghazarian said part of the growth of extreme groups could be linked to the rise of social media technology. “Social media has been a huge benefit to all sorts of groups because they’ve been able to advance their agenda online. They’ve been able to bypass traditional media channels and reach an audience,” he said. However, he said even if the NSN group were to register as a party, they would unlikely enjoy political success for advancing their “very specific policy agenda”.

A screenshot of the NSM party website.

Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dvir Abramovich said the NSM was a “nightmare come to life”,

“A Nazi group — an organisation built on the blood-soaked ideology of Adolf Hitler — is now trying to go mainstream by registering as a political party in Australia. Let that sink in,” he told the Herald Sun.

“These are not just some angry men in dark corners of the internet … (they’re) making a bid for legitimacy.

“These are the followers of an evil ideology … that rounded up six million Jews … and sent them to the gas chambers.

“And now, in 2025, on Australian soil, these modern-day brownshirts want a seat in parliament.”

Mr Abramovich said the bid to legitimise the neo-Nazi group would hurt any Holocaust survivor in Australia.

“Someone who escaped Auschwitz, who saw their entire family murdered, turning on the news to see that the ideology that nearly wiped them off the earth is being rebranded as a political party? Are we that blind? Do we really want to be the country that lets neo-Nazis put their name on a ballot?” he said.

He said if the Australian Electoral Commission would allow the party to register, then “history would never forgive us” and that Australia would “forever be known as the country that rolled out the welcome mat for modern-day Nazis”.

“I am calling on every leader, every politician, every Australian with a conscience to rise and slam the door shut on this abomination,” he said. “The Nazi Party of Australia must be crushed before it takes its first breath.”

Originally published as Premier’s office and Jewish leaders slams neo-Nazi group National Socialist Movement (NSM) trying to run for parliament