'White Australia' flyers linked to neo-Nazi leader sparks outrage in Glen Iris
“Horrified” Glen Iris were shocked to find vile neo-Nazi flyers — believed to be linked to white supremacist group National Socialist Network — in their mailboxes full of racist statements.
“Horrified” residents from a Melbourne suburb were shocked to find disturbing neo-Nazi flyers — believed to be linked to the notorious white supremacist group National Socialist Network — in their mailboxes making vile, racist statements.
Locals in Glen Iris discovered pamphlets delivered to their homes with the following message: “Every year the government imports more Third Worlders and Australia becomes less white and more brown”.
The flyers display a symbol linked to the National Socialist Network under the heading “White Australia”.
On the flyer there are four subheadings that outline the organisations bid to “make our continent great again”; including “Demographics Are Destiny”, “Rebirth of our Nation”, “White Australians must Organise” and “White Australia is just Beginning”.
“Australia was built as the White working man’s paradise; we want to return to this legacy – a legacy the ANZACs fought for,” it reads
It also had a website link directing readers to a site that names neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell as its “leader”.
Glen Iris resident Rosie, who found one of the flyers in her letterbox, told the Herald Sun she initially mistook it for junk mail.
“I opened it thinking it was junk mail and then I looked and I was like oh no, it’s hate speech and racism,” Rosie said.
“When I saw it I was horrified … I was horrified that people around here feel that way and people around here feel comfortable enough to share that.
“I felt angry that this is becoming a norm … that this is now acceptable, that people are walking the streets dropping these flyers into letterboxes … and they feel comfortable pushing this message.”
“We don’t need Nazis in Australia,” she said.
Another Glen Iris local said she was shocked to find the letter in her mailbox.
“It’s pretty confronting, I heard a few other people got them too,” she told the Herald Sun.
“You just don’t want that, that is not acceptable in any society.
“There’s a lot of people who are damn upset that it’s being dropped.”
Anti-Defamation Commission’s chairman, Dr Dvir Abramovich said the flyers were a direct attack on the fabric of Australia.
“This is an evil letter full of threats and intimidation and an attack on the Australia we promised our children,” Dr Abramovich said.
“When neo-Nazis creep through our streets under cover of night, stuffing white-supremacist poison into letterboxes, they are sending one message: We are coming for the heart of this nation.”
“Our leaders must treat this with the urgency it deserves, closing the loopholes that allow these hardcore bigots to edge toward political legitimacy while poisoning neighbourhoods with their fantasies of division.”
Similar leaflets have reportedly also been delivered in South Australia and Canberra.
Sewell, 32, the leader of the National Socialist Network, was born in New Zealand to South African parents before he migrated to Australia.
On November 13 he walked free from court after spending 72 days behind bars — he is facing 25 charges over an alleged attack at a First Nations camp in Melbourne’s Kings Domain earlier this year.
He signed documentation to secure his release on a $20,000 surety from his fiancee.
As part of his bail conditions Sewell must not speak to any of his alleged co-accused or attend Melbourne CBD.
