NSW national party questioned about neo-nazi infiltration on last day of nsw parliament
On the final sitting day of the NSW Parliament, the NSW National Party came under sustained questioning from the Labor Opposition about the on-going neo-Nazi infiltration within the ranks of the NSW Coalition junior partner.
Walt Secord
The NSW Opposition under parliamentary privilege said a staffer for a senior NSW government minister was involved with a neo-Nazi infiltration of the state’s National party.
The staffer also took paid leave to campaign for candidates with alt-right links in the US mid-term elections, NSW Opposition alleged in the NSW upper house this week.
NSW Legislative Council deputy Opposition leader Walt Secord, Opposition deputy whip Greg Donnelly and Labor MP Courtney Houssos all asked the Government four questions without notice about the infiltration of the NSW National Party, particularly, the young Nationals.
Mr Secord questioned what Roads Minister Melinda Pavey had done to remove the staffer from her office.
“What steps has Minister Pavey taken to remove this individual from her office and limit his influence on her portfolio responsibilities and decisions,” Mr Secord asked in the Legislative Council’s question time.
Close to 20 NSW Nationals members resigned from the party in October amid an internal investigation into the alt-right infiltration of the party.
Mr Secord was referring to a recent ABC Radio National Background Briefing investigation into Australia’s alt-right movement and a recent front-page Daily Telegraph report which said an internal report had identified 35 members had links to neo-Nazi movements within the NSW National Party.
The young Nationals have been linked to right-wing groups which have expressed racist comments about Jews and Asians and have targeted LGBTI groups – as well as espousing pro-Adolf Hitler sympathies and calling for the execution of LGBTI community members. They also posed for photographs in front of Nazi uniformed guards.
Mr Secord said the infiltration plan was an old political tactic used by extreme right-wing groups in the 1970s; the racist and antisemitic Australian League of Rights attempted similar tactics with the Queensland National Party. At the time, the tactic was called “entryism” and the attempt was fought by then-Nationals leader Larry Anthony (Snr).
Mr Secord, who is Deputy Opposition leader in the NSW Parliament’s Legislative Council and Deputy Chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel said this has turned out to be one of the largest infiltrations of any major political movement in recent years, and that the NSW Nationals response was simply not good enough.
The NSW Parliament rose on November 22 until after the March 2019 State election and is expected to resume in April 2019.
Walt Secord told J-Wire: “These groups are downright disgusting and have no place in Australian politics,”
They are offensive to the survivors of the Holocaust and Australian veterans who fought Nazism during World War II.
He added: “It is completely unacceptable in this day and age that a mainstream political party like the NSW Nationals would allow itself to become a safe haven for neo-Nazis.”
