NSW neo-Nazi Jack Eltis, a leader in the NSN and the man who submitted the form to police about Saturday’s rally, brags the group is 90 per cent of the way to registering and contesting the next election. He has described the party as a means to an end for the racist mission, and a way to provide legal protection for members and a propaganda and fundraising arm.
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Extremism researcher Dr Levi West, a research fellow at ANU, said Australia is in desperate need of reforms to the electoral system to protect it from neo-Nazis, who, he said, were growing in numbers judging by their propaganda and meet-ups.
“You would assume there is a broader community of people who don’t want to show up to a protest all in black, but sympathise with the movement … there is a lot of value in Australia exploring ways to protect the liberal democratic order,” West said.
The group needs a minimum of 750 members in NSW and 1500 federally, and must be registered by March to make the ballot for the next state election. The state government says it is open to electoral reform, but any changes to the powers of the electoral commission would come in the next year, giving the parliament a slim window of a few sitting weeks before the NSN reaches its March deadline.
Minns said on Wednesday anyone thinking of adding their name to the NSN’s growing list of supporters should consider whether they want to be publicly associated with Nazis.
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“Despite what the organisers of the party will tell you, this information may well become public and you’ll be exposed as a racist,” he said.
Neo-Nazi figure Joel Davis earlier this month attempted to convince his supporters to hand over their names and contact information, saying in a livestream his database is encrypted and the electoral commission “has never leaked”.
Leaking of political party member lists has happened before: in 1998, the names and suburbs of One Nation members were published in a magazine called the Australia/Israel Review.
The premier is still to give a definitive answer on how and why he was not made aware of Saturday’s neo-Nazi rally outside Parliament House as the list of those who did know grows. Police, parliament security, the presiding officers and security at the premier’s department at 52 Martin Place as well as some journalists were aware in the days before the rally.
“If I were to speculate, I would suggest it was because it was on the weekend. The truth of the matter is, people work on the weekend and people coming to the office on the weekend. So a glaring oversight, it’s a reason, not an excuse, and one that we need to fix as soon as possible,” he said.
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