A group of about 15 Nationals members have resigned amid an investigation into their alleged ties to neo-Nazi and fascist groups.
The party is investigating up to 35 NSW members for links to alt-right, white supremacist and other radical groups, in what federal leader Michael McCormack described as an intolerable situation.
The cohort under investigation represents a sizeable chunk of the youth wing's membership in NSW, which is understood to number about 300.
Clifford Jennings, who resigned from the National Party on Wednesday.Credit: Facebook
In a letter to state director Ross Cadell, suspended Young Nationals executive member Clifford Jennings claimed the party had subjected him and others to "trial by media".
He also accused the party of leaking private information about members and conspiring with "the ABC and other radical forces", including anti-fascist blog The White Rose Society.
Mr Jennings tendered his resignation on Wednesday afternoon, along with about 15 others.
Mr Jennings, a former Liberal Party member, was elected to the Young Nationals executive in May after stacking out a meeting in Lismore with dozens of new recruits from far-right circles.
He and other attendees were photographed at Lismore's The Loft restaurant making a hand gesture which has been associated with white supremacist groups in the United States.
In a 1300-word letter to party executives - seen by Fairfax Media - Mr Jennings suggested the group had used the hand gesture to symbolise "bon appetit".
Mr Jennings told Fairfax Media he was not a neo-Nazi or white supremacist, and was "1000 per cent" confident none of the people he signed up to the Nationals fitted that description.
"I had radical opinions two years ago," he said. He remained "a firm believer in immigration reform" and exhorted the politics of US President Donald Trump and Australian businessman Dick Smith.
"Opening Australia to mass third-world immigration is not 'moderate'. It is extremist," Mr Jennings wrote in the letter to the Nationals' state executive.
"The party should be asking why the ABC and other radical forces are seeking to suppress conservative elements in politics.
"It is because young white Australians are rebelling against the hopeless Coalition leadership that has dragged down Australia since the 1970s.
"They see a grim future for themselves and their children, of becoming a minority in their own country. They see that if indiscriminate mass immigration continues, and if the oppressive multicultural regime is not overthrown, they will be a harried, persecuted minority."
In a statement, the NSW Nationals confirmed it had received the resignation of a number of party members on Wednesday afternoon. It said the constitution and ethics committee's urgent investigation into the far-right's alleged infiltration of the party continued.
Federal Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Others caught up in the allegations were Lisa Sandford, another suspended member of the NSW Young Nationals executive, and Jeff McCormack, who works for the party's federal secretariat (but is of no relation to the Deputy Prime Minister).
Mr Cadell previously told News Corp one of the people under investigation appeared to have been in an "Antipodean Resistance propaganda video" and expressed quotes that "seem to celebrate Adolf Hitler in a very strong way".
Earlier this week, Mr McCormack said his party "will not tolerate extremism or the politics of hate". People who engaged in radicalism were "not welcome in our party", the Deputy Prime Minister said.
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, also from NSW, told Fairfax Media he had never met anyone in the party who exhibited signs of fascism, but any neo-Nazi had "no future" in the Nationals.
He also warned against anonymous accusations, arguing such claims should be made on-the-record.
"There’s nothing that annoys me more than accusing somebody of something they can’t actually prove," Mr Joyce said. "Just because someone makes an accusation doesn’t make it true."