The Australian Federal Police have revealed they’re targeting sovereign citizen groups who pose a risk of violence, while experts on anti-government extremists warn the threat must be balanced with the sensitive handling of mental health.
Sovereign citizens generally believe every human is born “free”, the government is illegitimate or corrupt, and they do not have to follow laws unless they sign a contract. There are fears some have become increasingly radicalised due to spending more time online since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Police involved in siege in the small town of Bowenfels, near Lithgow, in July.
Acting Assistant Commissioner of the AFP’s Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Command, Stephen Nutt, told the Herald the movement has recently been seen to “co-opt or overlap with patriot movements, conspiracy theories, anti-authoritarian and ethno-nationalist perspectives and the far-right”.
He said the pandemic led to people spending more time online and showing “increasing susceptibility to conspiracy theories due to the time of crisis and hardening of consensus ‘radical’ perspectives”.
Nutt said the AFP, alongside its domestic and international partners, were focused on “groups that may seek to breach legislation and move towards violence in support of any ideation”, adding the AFP’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team members were required to undergo training to understand and combat the threats of sovereign citizens.
The AFP’s Counter Terrorism Command and subsequent Joint Counter Terrorism teams were set up in 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and 2002 Bali Bombings.
The AFP’s Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Command, Stephen Nutt.
Two academics echoed Nutts’ concerns, fearing a perfect storm of isolated people, heavy social media use, an aggrievement towards society and underlying mental health issues could lead to more sovereign citizens harming themselves or others.
But they warned heavy-handed law enforcement was often deployed when it was too late – and there should be a stronger focus on preventing the radicalisation of people with mental health issues.
While sovereign citizens are far from new, Law Professor Harry Hobbs from the University of Technology Sydney said the pandemic accelerated their influence as they learnt how to integrate their anti-government ideologies into the topic of the day.
“Lately, they’ve shifted their focus away from anti-vax (sentiment) towards the referendum and how the Voice was apparently a backdoor for the UN (United Nations) to come in and steal Australian land,” Hobbs said.
“A lot of them claim they’re non-violent and peaceful, but obviously, they advocate for a lot of hate and division. They’ve internalised the view that they’re allowed to do whatever they want, which can be a trigger for violent behaviours.”
Former SAS soldier and high-profile sovereign citizen Riccardo Bosi.
High-profile sovereign citizens have publicly called for politicians and health workers to be hanged for their work during the pandemic, such as former SAS soldier turned right-wing extremist, Riccardo Bosi.
Bosi led the unregistered AustraliaOne Party (A1) when he unsuccessfully stood in the western Sydney seat of Greenway at the 2022 federal election. Several of his claims have been debunked by AAP FactCheck, including over the legality of the Australian election, COVID-19 vaccines, former prime minister Scott Morrison and the war in Ukraine.
Fellow conspiracy theorist, Darren Bergwerf, has also run for the A1 party. Bergwerf founded the anti-vax group, MyPlace, and spoke on the ABC’s 7.30 program of a plan of MyPlace members to take “control of council decisions”.
‘There are echo chambers, rabbit holes and nebulous algorithms where people get increasingly promoted by extreme positions.’
Law Professor Harry Hobbs, University of Technology Sydney
The Herald does not suggest Bosi or Bergwerf are linked to the groups police are monitoring.
According to Hobbs, a collective bid to overthrow or attack law enforcement was not the “real risk” – he was more concerned with an increase in “individual acts of violence” from people being radicalised online.
“There are echo chambers, rabbit holes and nebulous algorithms where people get increasingly promoted by extreme positions,” he said.
“They’re frustrated and isolated, may have underlying mental health challenges, and there’s perhaps something that triggers them. They can become violent, and they can do real damage to themselves and to people around them, particularly police”.
UTS Law Professor Harry Hobbs says authorities need to be sensitive to mental health issues when managing siege situations involving sovereign citizens.
Where mental health was a concern, Hobbs said police should not go in “all guns blazing” to a distressed sovereign citizen making threats.
But he acknowledged that “when someone has an axe or gun in the back of their house, it can be hard to send in mental health people”.
“People don’t go from zero to 100 in one day, right? They get put on a path, and they’re gradually radicalised,” he said.
“There are earlier stages where mental health support programs can be helpful to get people off that path, much earlier than when they’re armed.”
Independent researcher into far-right extremism and conspiracy theories, Dr Kaz Ross, said any group refusing to acknowledge the law could be dangerous.
But, like Prof Hobbs, she feared the threat was not from groups “roaming around wearing sheriff badges and talking about citizen arrests”, but was from people “finding these movements online who may have mental health issues” and access to weapons.
How to combat these threats sensitively was a challenge, Ross said.
Through her research, she found the “over-policing” of certain sieges had contributed to deaths or serious injury.
“I think that’s another danger. People just hear the word ‘sovereign citizen’ and think, ‘Oh my God, that nut job with a gun’, and immediately go for them with full force,” she said.
Recent cases with sovereign citizen links
While statistics around deadly tragedies linked to sovereign citizens are scarce, there have been several troubling incidents in NSW alone this year.
Daniel Whelan was found dead in a home after a siege near Lithgow.Credit: Nine News
In July, 29-year-old Daniel Whelan had suspected links to the sovereign citizen movement when he fired a gun at heavily armed police during a siege in Lithgow, before turning the weapon on himself.
Footage showed his partner surrendering in front of a flag bearing imagery from anti-government fringe political movements as the stand-off came to a grim end.
Krista Kach died in hospital after police peppered her with bean bag rounds and Tasered her during a siege.
Two months later, Newcastle woman Krista Kach referenced herself as a “sovereign being” in a livestream video as she barricaded herself inside her house while armed with an axe. She died after being Tasered and shot with bean bag rounds by police.
Kach had significant mental health issues at the time, and the Herald revealed a specialised program which sees mental health experts help NSW Police manage people in distress only operates 9am-5pm and does not run in Newcastle, where Ms Kach lived.
Kach’s family said she was not a dangerous person and that she was distressed as a result of being told she was to be evicted from her home.
Nathaniel and Stacey Train.Credit: A Current Affair
One of the most notable incidents outside the state was in December last year, when two police officers were murdered, and a third injured, at a shooting involving Nathaniel Train, Gareth Train, and his wife Stacey (also Nathaniel’s ex-wife) in a premeditated attack on their remote Queensland property, before posting a chilling YouTube Video. Police believe they were connected to the sovereign citizen movement.
A wide spectrum of people are linked to the movement and the Herald does not suggest they are all dangerous or violent.
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