Regional town condemns white supremacist march

Federal and state politicians from both sides have condemned a rally of white supremacists at a NSW town over the weekend.

A 'White supremacists' rally in the country NSW town of Corowa. Picture: Supplied

Federal and state politicians from both sides have condemned the approximately 50 white supremacists who marched through a small regional NSW town over the weekend, calling it “completely despicable” behaviour and the latest strategy by extremists “to shock and provoke”.

The group of men dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and sunglasses, walked from the Corowa RSL Park to the war memorial, shouting white supremacist slogans. They held a sign that said “White Men Fight Back”. Police dispersed the 50 men following reports of an unauthorised assembly, but no arrests were made.

NSW Premier Chris Minns called out the imported hatred as “completely despicable”.

“We have a very simple message for these far right extremists and neo-Nazis, who are not from our state – you’re not welcome in NSW and any attempts to spread hate here will be met with the full force of NSW Police,” he said.

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, whose regional NSW electorate covers Corowa, said “we cannot and should not tolerate gangs of balaclava covered thugs spouting hate anywhere in this country”.

“A group of white supremacists has sought to use the historic town of Corowa, which is in my Farrer electorate and the birthplace of federation, as the latest backdrop in their campaign to sow division and spread hate – they were rightly sent away and are rightly condemned,” Ms Ley said in a statement.

“Corowa now joins Ballarat in being subject to this sort of unacceptable activity. It is clear this is part of a strategy to shock and provoke using regional towns. In recent months, similar activities have been rightly shut down in our cities,” Ms Ley said.

“Federal and State authorities have the Coalition’s support to take whatever action is necessary to dismantle this organisation and stop these sorts of activities occurring.”

Ms Ley said the nation must “redouble efforts to counter this radicalisation and equip our authorities with every necessary support to take stronger action”.

Members of the community were critical of the group on social media, labelling the rally “disgusting”.

“What a horrible thing to happen in our community,” one person said.

Far-right extremist Jacob Hersant, who days ago became the first person found guilty of performing a Nazi salute in Victoria, wrote on Telegram that the protest was held because “multinational meat giant JBS is flooding with foreign workers”. He called immigrant labourers “non-white scabs in what is otherwise an extremely homogenous white town”.