Antipodean Resistance Neo-Nazi group trying to sway Australia's same-sex marriage postal vote
Updated
An Australian white power group, whose members pledge allegiance to Hitler during secret radicalisation camps, is posting propaganda around Melbourne designed to sway the national same-sex marriage postal vote.
The activities of Antipodean Resistance have so far been limited to Nazi-inspired vandalism, but terror experts are warning of the potential for violence.
There are now calls for the group, which has been actively recruiting members, to be banned as a terrorist organisation.
Antipodean Resistance has come to the attention of authorities through its attempts to influence the debate around the upcoming same-sex marriage postal vote, with posters linking gay marriage to paedophilia.
The ABC has confirmed the homophobic posters have been seen and removed as recently as Sunday from Melbourne locations including the Victorian Labor Party headquarters, Birrarung Marr park, Little Lonsdale Street, RMIT University and St Michael's Uniting Church.
Anti-Semitic posters and swastika stickers linked to the group were seen and removed at the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, Victorian Trades Hall Council, Melbourne Grammar School and Melbourne's Southland shopping centre.
The group has also claimed responsibility for Chinese-language posters at Melbourne universities threatening Asian students with deportation.
One member, who would not identify himself, told the ABC via email:
"We have a chapter in most major cities in Australia, and while we don't discuss numbers, we're sure we have more recruits than you'd like us to have."
Until now, Antipodean Resistance's activities have been limited to vandalism, but pictures of the group's radicalisation camps in a Victorian forest have appeared on social media.
"Everyone that comes to us has already been radicalised," the member said, but added the group works to further radicalise its initiates.
"At the moment we are extremely selective in our recruitment process," he said.
"We are after only the most radical, dedicated and fanatical National Socialists in Australia. In the future we seek to transition to a more public platform."
When asked whether the group would turn to violence to further its cause, the unidentified member said: "No comment."
Neo-Nazis given combat training
Antipodean Resistance chapters have held radicalisation camps in the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria, and near Mount Beerburrum on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, according to the group.
Pictures show young men grouped around a blue and white swastika flag performing the Nazi salute, their faces hidden with an animated icon of a skull with a hat.
"This flag doesn't just represent our worldview, or our cause," the group said on its website. "It also represents our transition to more open activism. "
In addition to combat training, which involves martial arts, members also practise their survival skills.
The group appears to have emerged late last year and has chapters in New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia.
Members also go on expeditions around capital cities, where they put up posters and stickers of swastikas and Nazi-inspired rhetoric.
"While we will of course continue to sticker and poster places of interest, we will start moving on to other things soon," the group said on its website.
It is currently mobilising against the same-sex marriage postal vote, and has previously targeted schools and universities with high Asian populations.
Australian National University terrorism expert Clarke Jones said there needed to be more focus on the rise of right-wing movements.
"You see the potential for these sorts of things to escalate quite quickly, and could end in loss of life or certainly serious injury," Dr Jones said.
"If they've gone through the training and they're building this mentality of conflict and being able to carry weapons or firearms, and being able to use self defence, then it just takes something to trigger some sort of violent act.
"We're seeing politicians not come down hard enough on the right wing of society and that almost legitimises young people to think, 'Well if the Parliament or the Government's not focused on it, therefore it's right for me to do'."
Terrorist act 'only takes one person'
Federal Labor MP Anne Aly, who worked in counter-terrorism and radicalisation before she was elected, said the existence of groups like Antipodean Resistance was not surprising.
"These groups are all about growing and they are getting much more emboldened and much more organised about what they see as a war, a race war," she said.
"They feel that the white race is under threat and they feel that the only way to protect their race is through violence. They just need to get enough people to believe that.
"For a terrorist attack to succeed, it really only takes one person."
Dr Aly said the group was becoming increasingly brazen, openly posting details of its radicalisation camp and membership process on its website.
She said that although putting up posters was "low key", it still posed a threat.
"They will radicalise more young people," Dr Aly said.
"They're openly allowed to operate. They're openly allowed to propagandise and spread this kind of hatred and it's because there's nothing stopping them.
"While we're so focused on the jihadist threat, we are missing another very real threat."
According to the group's website, membership is limited to young white men in their teens or twenties who are "able to take a hit" for their beliefs.
White men who are gay or in relationships with people who are not white cannot join.
Those who do sign up take on a pseudonym in order to remain anonymous.
You can leave white power, says former Neo-Nazi
Former Neo-Nazis have reached out to the young men filling the chapters of Antipodean Resistance.
Robert Örell is a former member of a violent Swedish white power group, and today runs Exit Sweden, which helps Neo-Nazis leave the movement.
"They see the double standards in the movement, they feel fed up with the lifestyle and they're also very fed up with the mindset of hate," Mr Örell said.
"It used to be very clear that when we started, people thought you couldn't really leave these groups. You couldn't really change your mindset … but clearly now the perception has changed.
"It's often very difficult and it takes time, but it's definitely possible [to get out]."
Dr Aly said the Federal Government should intervene and ban Antipodean Resistance.
"There needs to be more of an acknowledgement that this form of radicalisation is just as dangerous as other forms of radicalisation," she said.
"I would like to see some of these groups proscribed … as terrorist and violent organisations.
"They are about violence and hatred. This is not about expressing an opinion or participating in a civil debate. This is about killing people."
The member who corresponded with the ABC over email denied it was a terrorist group.
"It is ridiculous to compare engaging in self-improvement and promoting a healthy worldview to running over children in Nice or the bombing of an airport in Brussels," he said.
"The youth in this nation are disillusioned with the current system and looking for a solution. With how feeble every other approach is, it's only natural that the strength of our fanaticism and action is able to attract them."
The ABC contacted the Australian Federal Police (AFP), but it wouldn't comment on specific groups.
"Police are concerned about the point at which extremist views become actions that are illegal. Using violence to force your views on others is illegal and unacceptable in a democracy.
"The AFP takes all extremist groups seriously, targeting criminality regardless of the background of the perpetrator."
Victoria Police said it was monitoring intelligence on groups that could pose a public threat and was "well equipped to intervene".
"We respect the right of the community to express their views peacefully and lawfully, however, urging violence and hatred is not a form of free speech that the community, or Victoria Police will tolerate," a spokeswoman said.
Attorney-General George Brandis has been contacted for comment.
Topics: race-relations, government-and-politics, melbourne-3000, vic, sydney-2000, newcastle-2300, nsw, hobart-7000, tas, perth-6000, wa, brisbane-4000, qld
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