The country’s top spy has confirmed that neo-Nazis are on the rise in Australia, but warned that espionage remains the biggest threat to national security.
The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), Mike Burgess, said neo-Nazis were more likely to organize public displays, but monitoring these groups still didn’t make up the bulk of his organisation’s workload.
Appearing before a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Burgess said he briefed Anthony Albanese after he claimed last week that right-wing extremism had been a growing threat to Australia’s security for ‘some time’.
The prime minister made the remarks after members of a neo-Nazi group performed the Sieg Heil salute at an anti-immigration rally in Melbourne on May 13 following similar public rallies earlier this year.
Burgess said these types of demonstrations were gaining prominence, but that they were mainly aimed at recruiting new members and did not necessarily indicate an increase in the terrorist threat from neo-Nazi groups.
Australia’s top spy has confirmed neo-Nazis (pictured May 13 in Melbourne) are getting bolder
Neo-Nazis salute as they are ordered to leave the area during a heated anti-racism political rally on May 13, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia
“It’s a sign that those groups have more courage and are able to come out publicly in their recruitment to push and recruit what they believe in to their cause,” he said.
Does that mean the number has increased? I don’t necessarily see that connection.’
However, Mr Burgess said ASIO had witnessed an increase in the number of people attracted to neo-Nazi ideology for reasons the organization “did not fully understand”.
He revealed that the caseload of ASIO’s counter-terrorism investigation, devoted to ideologically motivated extremism, including the neo-Nazi movement, had grown from five percent to about 30 percent over the past seven years.
ASIO head Mike Burgess (pictured) said neo-Nazis were more likely to stage public displays
A group of men were photographed giving the Nazi salute as they celebrated the Nazi dictator’s birthday at a Melbourne restaurant
But the main threat remained religiously motivated extremism, which took up 70 percent of the organization’s workload, Burgess said.
He also revealed that ASIO was monitoring potential security threats and foreign interference as the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns for the indigenous vote in parliament got under way.
“We don’t see any indication that people are planning a terrorist attack as part of that, but that’s something we’re constantly looking at as the threat level for terrorism is still probable,” he said.
Mr Burgess said ASIO had not received any information suggesting any foreign actor intended to interfere in the referendum – due to be held sometime between October and December.
But he said ASIO kept an “open mind” to the possibility and remained on the lookout.
He said that the debate leading up to the referendum could lead to spontaneous violence, but that this would be a matter for the police rather than ASIO.
On May 13, 2023, neo-Nazis are depicted giving the Hitler salute at a protest in Melbourne
Thomas Sewell (pictured left) visited the Nine Network building in Melbourne with a cameraman on March 1, 2021 and demanded to speak to someone from A Current Affair
“Unfortunately, we expect that while people are expressing their opinions and exchanging their opinions online, some people may stir up,” he said.
“We continue to see if anyone is committing planned violence, promoting politically motivated violence, promoting communal violence, or trying to intervene from a foreign interference perspective.”
In March, a group of men were photographed giving the Hitler salute while celebrating the Nazi dictator’s birthday at a family restaurant.
Thomas Sewell, the leader of the National Socialist Network, was among those attending the event at the Bavarian – a German-themed outlet – at the Knox City Shopping Center in the Melbourne suburb of Wantirna.
Photos shared via encrypted messaging showed the men raising their hands in a Nazi salute as one held a photo of Hitler and the other held two balloons shaped like the letter H, meaning Heil Hitler.
Dr. Dvir Abramovich, the chairman of the anti-defamation commission, described it as a “sad and dark day for our democracy.”
“Something is very wrong in Victoria, and we should all be alarmed by this brazen and stomach-churning outrage that will forever stain our state,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
Off court, Sewell (pictured) was defiant and gave another Nazi salute as he emerged
Dr. Dvir Abramovich (pictured) said: ‘we should all be alarmed by this brazen and stomach-churning outrage’
Dr. Abramovich, Australia’s leading anti-hate advocate, said the actions of Sewell and his cohort amounted to a “particular evil”.
“This beyond despicable display of Hitler worship and depravity belongs in 1930s Nazi Germany, not in a local restaurant where parents and children gather.”
Sewell, who was found guilty of assaulting a Channel 9 security officer last year, reportedly described the night as “amazing and eventful” in an encrypted Telegram message.
“They are persecuting us because they know we are rising and the world will learn the truth about Hitler and look to us for leadership,” Sewell wrote.