NSW Police Authorise Neo-Nazi Protest at State Parliament and Watch On

The first authorised neo-Nazi rally to take place in New South Wales occurred last Saturday, 8 November 2025. As per state protocol, White Australia, the rebranded National Socialist Network, had lodged a Form 1 with the NSW Police two weeks prior, which included their aim to demonstrate against the “Jewish Lobby”. This was scrutinised by senior police a week prior, and it was permitted to go ahead.

The left unchallenged neo-Nazi rally before NSW parliament happened amidst a monthslong moral panic around antisemitism. It also occurred during the ongoing Israeli-perpetrated Gaza genocide, which has driven much criticism of the Israel lobby or the Zionist lobby. But with their beliefs distinctly embedded in 1930s Nazism, the NSN intentionally chose to target the ‘Jewish lobby’.

Sworn in as new NSW police commissioner barely a month ago, Mal Lanyon has been at pains to tell every news outlet that senior police, specifically deputy commissioner Peter Thurtell, didn’t notify him that neo-Nazis were rallying, so it’s not his fault. However, the unblemished record of not approving Nazi rallies in this state has been squandered, after he’s been about six weeks in office.

NSW premier Chris Minns is livid over the “pissants”, who paraded out the front of state parliament. He repeatedly decried the fact that these young Anglo Celtic Australians raised the Anzac legend during their Nazi rally. And it’s likely that the NSW Labor government is the first in Australia ever to have authorised a rally held by Nazis, who harbour white supremacist and anti-Jewish beliefs.

The premier has since been applying his cure-all to social blemishes that his government lets slide or seeks to propagate: the promise of new laws and criminal offences. But not only is Minns attempting to apply a band aid to a first ever authorised Nazi rally that can never be fixed, but there is already an official inquiry about the dubious manner in which he passed another large swag of laws in February.

Boys on parade

Around 70 members of the National Socialist Network, which is the national neo-Nazi umbrella group that’s recently announced its aspirations to run in the next federal election as the political party White Australia, gathered out the front of NSW parliament at 10 am on 8 November. As per usual, the white men were black-clad, while their banner read: Abolish the Jewish Lobby.

NSN member Joel Davis said on the loudspeaker that the boys were out on parade due to the Minns government having passed a series of hate crimes and antiprotest laws in late February, which they claim were at the behest of the group that they’ve termed the Jewish lobby. These laws were passed when the state wasn’t privy to a spate of “antisemitic” crimes having actually been staged.

During the series of arson and graffiti attacks on Jewish properties on Gadigal and Dharug land in Greater Sydney last summer, supporters of the Palestine solidarity movement criticised the Minns government response to the incidents that at first had clearly criticised Israel, as being antisemitic or displays of Jewish prejudice, whereas they had comprised of political critiques of a genocide.

Pro-Palestinians have consistently called out the Israel lobby or the Zionist lobby as having an undue influence over the state government, during the 25 months of the Gaza genocide. This reveals an understanding that not all Jewish people are Zionists or supporters of Israel. So, it would appear the NSN were purposefully targeting all Jewish people, as the Jewish lobby, as neo-Nazis tend to do.

Davis held a similar anti-Jewish rally out the front of Victorian parliament in Naarm-Melbourne last December. The antisemitism envoy failed to raise an eyebrow over this. Nazis have been openly rallying on Australian streets since March 2023. They’ve rallied in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland. The NSN rallied in Sydney in August 2025, as part of a larger group of white nationalists.

The thin blue line

If a group wants to hold a protest in NSW, they’re required to lodge a Form 1 with the NSW police, which explains their intentions. This is necessary if they plan to do something out of the ordinary like march on the street. If the police make no response, it means they have scrutinised the form and let it go ahead, and such rallies are then considered ‘authorised’.

This process results in two things. The first is that when demonstrators march, they cannot be penalised with criminal or summary offences that usually apply to obstructing roads. The neo-Nazis appear to have lodged their form even though they were not going to march and could have rallied on the footpath without authorisation. So, the NSN was overly forthright about its intentions.

Since 2020, the NSW police has received Form 1s from various protest groups planning to hold a rally, and senior management have moved to prevent a number of them from proceeding. The most prominent demonstrations the NSW Police Force has attempted to have the courts officially cancel have involved Black Lives Matter, the Palestine solidarity movement and climate defenders.

NSW police deputy commissioner Peter Thurtell has apologised to commissioner Lanyon for not informing him of his having scrutinised the fact that White Australia, the NSN, was rallying the following weekend, when he considered the prospect on Monday 3 November. So, the senior cop thought neo-Nazis on parade was nothing to give any greater consideration to.

Not only is having given permission to the neo-Nazis to parade on Macquarie Street in the Sydney CBD problematic in its own right, but when it is taken alongside the long-term criticism of NSW police culture as being a racist, misogynistic and homophobic one, with officers even promoting the white supremacist “thin blue line” ideal, it’s unsurprising the Nazis were authorised to demonstrate.

The second outcome of lodging a Form 1 with the NSW police and not having any questions raised about whether it can proceed is it results in state law enforcement deploying a contingent of its officers to oversee the demonstration. This means that NSW police officers were present for the anti-Jewish lobby rally by Nazis outside state parliament last weekend, and they simply watched on.

Legislating our way out of this

After being the only Australian premier to have presided over a jurisdiction that authorised a neo-Nazi parade, NSW premier Chris Minns has suggested that protest laws have to be beefed up because unlike other groups, the state can’t prevent Nazis from parading.

“It’s likely the case that we need to give police more legislative powers to stop this kind of naked hatred and racism on Sydney streets, that is the truth of the matter,” Minns told the press in the wake of the protest. “We’re looking at that very closely. We don’t want to tolerate, and we don’t believe we should tolerate, a kind of city where that white power hatred… is on Sydney streets.”

Liberal opposition leader Mark Speakman questioned why the protest was not challenged in the courts, and he suggested there is likely a law on the books to prevent it. This is the offence of publicly inciting hatred on ground of race, under section 93ZAA of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), and carries it up to 2 years prison and/or a fine of $11,000. Minns passed this offence in February this year.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin condemned the rally, suggesting police need more powers, but he balked at the idea that NSW police could be blamed for its occurrence, as he rather pointed the finger at the proliferation of protests over the last two years leading to this, which implied that the state’s pro-Palestinian rallies ultimately spurred the Nazis.

Yet, while the Daily Telegraph reported that Speakman asserted there was a law on the books and the premier repeatedly said no effective law was available and more are needed, the Murdoch press too advised that the state opposition is considering introducing laws that would limit activist groups to three rallies per year and require the courts to consider the taxpayer costs of demonstrations.