Ignoring the Fascist Threat

Fascists groups in Australia, though tiny, regularly threaten violence. The state is traditionally blind to terror from the Right; don’t expect it to intervene.

Sydney, Australia, 2006.Kevin Gibbons / Flickr


“In Australia, the extreme right-wing threat is real and it is growing. In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology.”

That’s Mike Burgess, the director-general of security for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), delivering ASIO’s annual threat assessment.

We do not know details about the people he describes. But, on face value, combat training linked to Nazi ideology seems to fall squarely within the remit of Australia’s anti-terror laws.

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