‘Straight out of central casting’: Liberal Senator Alex Antic floats neo-Nazi theory
An outspoken Liberal Senator has floated a popular online theory in parliament about notorious Australian neo-Nazi group the NSN.
An outspoken senator has made comments mirroring a popular online theory about notorious Australian neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network (NSN), questioning their recent public appearances.
Liberal Senator Alex Antic, in a carefully worded speech on Wednesday, suggested that the appearance of black-clad NSN members “straight out of central casting” at anti-immigration “March for Australia” rallies on Sunday was “odd”.
The South Australian Senator questioned why NSN members had been crashing similar right-wing events for the past few years “right on cue”, gaining widespread media coverage despite their small numbers.
“The March for Australia was an overwhelmingly peaceful event held across Australian capital cities last weekend,” Mr Antic said.
“Ninety-nine point nine per cent of the attendees were there for the right reasons, expressing their frustration over the terrible state of the country. The participants were everyday Aussies from all backgrounds, united with a concern for the terrible state of the country and Australia’s future.
“Then, enter the appalling National Socialist Network, or the NSN, labelled ‘far right’ by the media but using the term socialist in their name, which always strikes me as being odd.
“Now the NSN are a strange group. Not face-tattooed overweight men like we’ve come to accept from these types, but the oddly clean cut, preppy-looking ones.
“Someone said to me the other day, ‘Seems like they’re straight out of central casting.’
“For the last few years these men have been turning up to similar events every now and then, mostly masked but sometimes not, but certainly right on cue.
“Why don’t we know more about these people? And how come a group with so few numbers gets so much media attention? I think that’s weird.
“And how come the leader of the group just happened to be in the area right as the Premier of Victoria conducted a press conference with multiple cameras around? Must just be an incredible coincidence.
“Their stunts seem almost like pantomime and one would say cartoon-like if the subject matter wasn’t so appalling.
“It’s very odd, actually, and none of it seems to make sense. But one thing’s for sure, though — these people don’t speak for the views and concerns of everyday Aussies.
“But that said, there’s no doubt how useful they’ve been for the government, the media and the establishment that’s hellbent on trying to subdue dissent growing in mainstream Australia about a country in decline. And I think that’s odd.”
News.com.au understands Senator Antic intends to pose questions about the NSN to law enforcement and intelligence representatives when they appear before the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee at Senate Estimates next month.
“The Australian government does not comment on security matters for operational reasons,” a Home Affairs Department spokeswoman said.
“Relevant Australian government agencies monitor the activities of organisations that may pose a threat to Australians.
“Australia’s law enforcement and security agencies are among the best in the world and continue to do everything within their powers to keep our community safe in the changed environment.”
The NSN responded saying Senator Antic “has no evidence for his claim”, and argued the theory “doesn’t make sense”.
“Our movement is made up of everyday Australians who care about the future of our race,” a spokesman said.
The NSN — established in Victoria in 2020 with the merger of far-right “men’s fitness club” the Lads Society and neo-Nazi organisation the Antipodean Resistance — has long faced accusations of being “feds”, as the online parlance goes.
“It is obvious that NSN are a fed psyop (psychological operation),” one X user wrote on Sunday. “They were getting wheeled around by the police and treated like special needs children with a Make-a-Wish day.”
“The NSN are and will always be feds,” another said. “They went out of their way to do this so the entire anti-mass migration protest could be tarred with their bulls**t.”
A third wrote, “My possibly unpopular opinion is that the NSN is obviously like 30 dudes, half of whom are probably ASIO, the other half of whom are mostly dealing with AVOs and custody hearings, and there’s a Streisand effect going on so the media should stop naming them and covering them.”
Brian Marlow, executive director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, a conservative lobby group, said he was not convinced.
“I must admit that for a brief moment I thought the idea that the NSN are some complicated FedOp or that they were a useful tool for the Labor government was somewhat plausible,” he wrote on X.
“Until you consider the following:
“The feds can barely keep on top of a SINGLE SovCit going birko out bush, let alone orchestrate some interstate RW squad, consisting of hundreds of members, to undermine RW discourse and momentum? I assume that’s the claim here.
“That Sewell bloke is already in jail. He was nabbed outside the courthouse shortly after gate crashing the press conference. His bail hearing has been delayed and I bet you $50 he won’t be out on bail.
“I just don’t buy it.”
Other right-wing figures pushed back on Senator Antic’s speech, accusing him of “fedjacketing” — a term used in left-wing and right-wing radical movements to refer to someone being wrongly branded a federal asset to discredit them.
March for Australia organiser Hugo Lennon, who goes by the online persona “Auspill”, wrote on X, “My pattern recognition is sounding the alarm, why are they (the NSN) suddenly being fedjacketed by sitting senators and the freedom movement/grift right simultaneously? Something is off.”
Meanwhile, American white nationalist figure Nick Fuentes brutally mocked the NSN in a viral four-minute rant earlier this week.
“They look like a******s,” he said.
“They’re in black uniforms, they’re violent, they’re thugs, they’re screaming, they’re using profanity, they’re doing swastikas, Heil Hitlers, and they stick out like a sore thumb.
“So you have tens of thousands of f**king normal people … that love Australia with Australian flags, and then you’ve got these goofballs in black uniforms, and the normal people are saying, ‘What is this? The Nazi LARP (live-action role play)? Get the f**k out of here.
“So I think it’s just delusional and insane.
“What you don’t do is go and stand off on your own and wear something totally bizarre and weird and self-segregate and say, ‘We’re going to wear all black because we hate everyone and we’re all Nazis and f**king racists, f**k everyone, we’re going to beat you the f**k up. Yeah, we are the bad guys. We hate all of you.’
“What is even the point of that? All normal people look at them as odious.”
While March for Australia had denied links to white supremacists and neo-Nazis, leader Thomas Sewell, 32, earlier told supporters his movement would be publicly speaking at the rally.
“We will be attending in good faith, in uniform and without masks,” he shared online prior to Sunday’s rally.
“We have had positive ongoing contact with the event organisers nationwide. The event organisers are agreeable for any groups to attend provided they support the stance of ending immigration.”
Mr Sewell led a group of NSN supporters into the Melbourne CBD on Sunday, engaging in numerous brawls and violent clashes, including with left-wing Antifa members and right-wing Australian-Israeli commentator Avi Yemini.
He addressed the Melbourne crowd on Sunday afternoon, telling them “we are here as Australians proud and true and thoroughbred” and calling for an end to mass migration.
After the rally, Mr Sewell and around 30 of his followers made their way to Camp Sovereignty at King’s Domain — an Indigenous encampment located on a sacred site in Melbourne — where a number of people were allegedly assaulted.
Mr Sewell was arrested on Tuesday in relation to that incident outside Melbourne Magistrates Court.
Before being arrested, Mr Sewell crashed a press conference being held by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, calling her a “coward” and shouting “Heil Australia”.
Mr Sewell appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday seeking bail. He is charged with violent disorder, affray, assault by kicking, discharge missile and other offences.
He has not entered any pleas. A decision on his bail application will be handed down on Friday.
Two other men, aged 23 and 20, were also arrested over the same incident and will front court on September 10.
The growing profile of the NSN has led to calls for the group to be banned as a terrorist organisation.
“Ban them,” Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dr Dvir Abramovich told news.com.au last month, after around 100 members paraded through the Melbourne CBD holding a banner reading “White Man Fight Back”.
“List the National Socialist Network and its satellites as terrorist organisations. Shut down their digital pipelines of hate. Freeze their accounts. Dismantle their recruitment channels before another teenager is pulled into the vortex.”
White Australia, the political arm of the NSN, claims to have a “membership of activists” of “around 300” and “thousands of signed up supporters nationwide”.
“Our recruitment has surged following our recent national meet in Melbourne,” a spokesman told news.com.au last month.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the country’s domestic security agency, says around one quarter of its counter-terrorism workload is now related to “ideologically motivated violent extremists”, mainly right-wing and racist groups.
“We expect nationalist and racist violent extremists to continue their efforts to ‘mainstream’ and expand their movement,” ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said in his annual threat assessment in February.
“They will undertake provocative, offensive and increasingly high-profile acts to generate publicity and recruit. While these activities will test legal boundaries, the greatest threat of violence comes from individuals on the periphery of these organised groups.
“I remain concerned about young Australians being caught up in webs of hate, both religiously and ideologically motivated.
“In the polarised, grievance-rich environment I’m describing, social cohesion will remain strained and we can expect spikes in communal violence.”
ASIO, in a submission to a Senate inquiry into right-wing extremism last year, said these groups were “more likely to focus on recruitment and radicalisation rather than attack planning in the foreseeable future”, but warned that could change.
“Internationally, the March 2019 Christchurch attacks have been cited as inspiration for nationalist and racist violent extremist (NRVE) attacks overseas, and the attacks continue to resonate with NRVEs here in Australia,” ASIO said.
“Over the last 18 months, we have seen an uptick in the number of NRVEs advocating sabotage in private conversations both here and overseas. It is particularly pronounced among NRVE ‘accelerationists’ — meaning extremists who want to trigger a so called ‘race war’.”
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Originally published as ‘Straight out of central casting’: Liberal Senator Alex Antic floats neo-Nazi theory
