The events of the past couple of weeks in Australia, from the Marches for Palestine versus the those for Australia, to the killing of two police officers in Porepunkah, have highlighted a growing unrest driven by the cost of living. Struggling to pay rents, let alone buy a house, many people are being pushed further into regional and rural areas, travelling further for work, facing financial hardship as they try to cover everything from groceries to insurance. Beneath the disquiet, are a group of malcontents looking to blame someone for their lot in life, immigrants of colour or non-Christian belief who have come at the behest of governments building the nation.
Multiculturalism, driven by a series of policies progressively implemented post-World War II, brought much needed labour, intellectual expertise and broader agricultural options to the growing nation, enabling the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, research and development at the Woomera rocket testing range, steel production at Port Kembla and winemaking in the Barossa. Even prior to the two World Wars, Australia had a noticeable population of Chinese and Indian immigrants working in the goldfields or in the major cities. Immigrant breadth started to broaden from the late 1940s as people departed a devastated Europe, looking for opportunity and a way to forget the horrors of a war that had left no-one untouched. Australia would not have grown to be what it is today without immigration.
As growth has slowed and globalisation has taken hold, some descendants of the Anglo-Celtic settlers, who believe they are entitled to an easier life and the majority of the benefits of this boundless nation, have taken issue with immigrants. Indeed, they blame immigrants for all of their difficulties. Immigrants are blamed for taking jobs, pushing up the cost of housing, overrunning cities.
Thomas Sewell, leader of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network (NSN), European Australia Network and Lads Society has patiently built upon the discontent of mostly young men to “prove” to them that immigrants are taking their jobs, pushing up the cost of housing, overrunning cities and bringing people with values inconsistent with the “Australian way of life” into the country. Groups such as the NSN value masculinity above all else and see violence as an acceptable expression of their power over women and people of non-European heritage.
These white supremacist groups perceive anyone who is not white as inferior and/or a danger. So it should be no surprise that following the anti-immigration and nationalistic March for Australia, Sewell and around 50 of his brethren descended on the sacred Indigenous Camp Sovereignty site in Melbourne’s King’s Domain. What is more concerning is that it was the third attack that day. It bodes the question – where were the police? Standing between Palestine protesters and racist thugs, but ignoring, yet again, the Indigenous people who had already been intimidated twice that day.
It is clear that racism in this country is no less intrusive or destructive than two decades ago and the problem extends across state and territory lines. Australian law enforcement and politicians have failed to address the racist rhetoric espoused by white supremacists such as Angel Marina, well-known to have been both supported and protected by the Stanhope ACT Government, senior ACT Public Servants and the Australian Federal Police. Having never been held to account for his documented racism of 9 May 2002 stating that “… Aborigines are compulsive liars and criminals and unsuitable to hold management positions” and “…the general disposition of Aborigines to lie …”, he was able to continue to racially vilify his victim. He was further enabled to bully that same victim to the point of mental ill health, before submitting a public interest disclosure known by ACT executives to be fraudulent in order to see him dismissed from his employment in the ACT Public Service.
More than a decade later that same public service, via the Australian Federal Police, pursued Bakchos to the ACT Supreme Court, the prosecution telling the jury that as an indigenous man the defendant could not be believed, in an effort to hide the actions of those who destroyed the life of an Indigenous family. Despite beating the charges against him 16-0, neither Bakchos nor this Indigenous family has seen any desire to address the glaring racism at the heart of these matters.
In Alice Springs the five murderers of Kwementyaye Ryder received sentences of no more than six years and all were released from jail within four years, highlighting the seeming lack of concern for Indigenous lives by the justice system. In Western Australia the death of Mr Ward, essentially “cooked” in an unconditioned paddy van on a 1,000 km trip in 40C heat, resulted in no-one being held criminally accountable. In Queensland, police detained and assaulted a seventeen-year old youth whilst in custody, suffering no disciplinary or criminal consequences. There are innumerable documented offences against Indigenous people across the country and every single one is ignored, downplayed or justified by the investigating police.
If you think that these are isolated incidents, take a look at what the ACT Government has done to Bakchos and his Indigenous family. That is what happens when politicians are more concerned for their jobs than their constituents. Take a look at how a single racist individual, namely Angel Marina, was able to corrupt an entire public service so as to get his way. Now look at Sewell.
Sewell’s ability to encourage people not to hide their faces behind masks whilst assaulting others during and following protests speaks to the increase in confidence of the core group, especially when it comes to Indigenous people, a soft target often ignored by law enforcement. He is bold, unafraid to lie about his motives, to spin propaganda for an audience he does not truly care about so as to coerce a minority already leaning toward his views. He will bludgeon his way past those who refuse to support him and will use his public profile to assume the notoriety and profile he considers he deserves. And he will use people, including those he considers friends, to get information or preferential treatment. Perceptions of preferential treatment by his acolyte Nathan Bull and those around him who perform Nazi salutes and are escorted when marching have been drawn due to the history of Bull’s father working in the police.
Notably, Bull’s family has distanced themselves from the acolyte this week, following the violence at Camp Sovereignty; it is well that they have done so. Racism is a scourge that we all must face. Actors such as Sewell are leveraging societal panic, inaction by law enforcement and judicial naivety to generate further discontent and unrest. They are interested in reducing immigration only for non-Christians and non-whites. They would welcome back an Aborigines Protection Board purely for the purposes of creating a lesser group of people; afterall, someone has to be at the bottom of the social pecking order. Everyone else could leave – unless they were white Europeans. These white supremacists have no intention of working as labourers or scientists or researchers. They are violent extremists, intent upon forcing their will and opinions upon others and Indigenous people are the most at risk.
Australia has had more than enough time to wake up to the true depth of racism in this country. There are only two options – to stand against racism and white supremacy or stand with people like Sewell. The neo-Nazi’s have no interest in meeting everyone else in the middle. They will not integrate, they will not apologise, they will not change. From governments to law enforcement and judiciary, we need to stand against the rising tide of white nationalism and confected patriotism.
