Police failed to monitor neo-Nazis at March for Australia protests: legal observers

Reviews of police conduct during right-wing rallies found "serious" failings

Police assigned to far-right protests in three states failed to monitor neo-Nazi attendees or investigate alleged assaults against counter-protesters, according to damning new reports from legal observer groups.

Legal Observers NSW – an activist organisation that monitors police at rallies and provides legal support to people charged at protest actions – monitored the actions of NSW Police at several recent Sydney rallies with a far-right presence.

In its latest report, released on Monday, the organisation's observers detail several examples of police seemingly failing to respond to instances or threats of violence committed by far-right demonstrators against counter-protesters.

Reports from Melbourne Activist Legal Support (MALS) and Action Ready, a Brisbane-based organisation, made similar findings about Victoria Police and Queensland Police Service (QPS) officers at respective 'March for Australia' rallies in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Anastasia Radievska, protest rights campaigner at the Australian Democracy Network, told Deepcut the reports "raise serious questions" about whether police and governmental responses to protests are being driven by ideology rather than objective assessments of risk.

"We've routinely seen 'risk to safety' and 'potential for violence' cited as reasons to either try and refuse protests, as with pro-Palestine protests in New South Wales, or as an excuse to deploy huge numbers of police, as happened at the protest against Land Forces in Victoria," Radievska said.

"In relation to far-right rallies, we have recorded incidents of their organisers and organising groups calling for violence. But that doesn't seem to have triggered the same risk level as largely peaceful protests have in the past."

NSW Police, Victoria Police and the QPS did not respond to questions.

'Police don't take the risk of far-right violence seriously enough'

Observing the 'March for Australia' rally on August 31, Legal Observers NSW received a report that "NSW Police did not send officers to assist two people who called the police after March for Australia attendees shoved, hit and followed them on Broadway".

The report also criticised police for not challenging the application from 'March for Australia' organisers to proceed with the Sydney demonstration, despite organiser 'Bec Freedom' reportedly calling for violence in the lead-up to the rally.

The group noted that NSW Police have applied to the NSW Supreme Court in several unsuccessful attempts to block protests planned by the Palestine Action Group since October 2023, on the basis that the planned rallies supposedly posed a risk to public safety.

"NSW Police did not exercise their discretion to challenge the authorisation for the rally given a public call for violence coming from its organiser, where they had previously sought to refuse authorisation for rallies on an equal or lesser risk basis," the report states.

The report also cites a Legal Observers team at the Bondi Beach protest in support of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on September 7 which witnessed officers failing to respond to racist taunts and threats directed at protesters by members of a large pro-Israel counter-rally, including “I hope you’re all killed”, “no dogs on the beach”, “get off our beach”, “deport you all”, “white Australia”, “go back to Lakemba” and “you’re all terrorists”.

Radievska criticised police for allowing the pro-Israel counter-protest to approach the Freedom Flotilla rally, noting that police escorted the counter-protest from its original location in a nearby park to the beach itself.

"Normally for a counter protest, there would be far higher levels of police deployed, and police lines would be set up in advance so that there wasn't physical contact between rallies and a level of safe distance was maintained. That just wasn't done at Bondi," she said.

"It escalates the risk of conflict between groups when police don't take the risk of far-right violence seriously enough."

Police 'facilitated a period of sustained verbal abuse and threats of violence'

MALS were similarly scathing of Victoria Police's conduct during and after the Melbourne 'March for Australia' rally, finding that police used horses and shields to physically push people, deployed a flash bang grenade and pepperball projectiles, and threatened to use their batons on 'March for Australia' counter-protesters.

"Police operational tactics deployed on the day, which focused solely upon separating opposing groups, resulted in a failure to adequately manage the intimidating, hateful, and discriminatory behaviour of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups who marched through the CBD, spoke on the steps of Parliament House, and allegedly assaulted people throughout the day," the report said.

The report also criticised police for failing to monitor a large group of National Socialist Network (NSN) members after issuing them with a move-on order outside Flinders Street Station. The group immediately marched to the Camp Sovereignty First Nations protest camp, where they allegedly assaulted multiple people. 10 people have been charged over the attack so far.

"Over the past few years, MALS has observed police interaction with neo-Nazi groups such as NSN and has reported on disproportionate policing responses to the NSN compared with various other protest groups across multiple causes," the report found.

"When NSN has held public demonstrations, MALS has observed, and has seen publicly available footage of, Victoria Police often not intervening and tacitly facilitating their demonstrations by not preventing members to gather, conduct racist and hateful speeches, and disperse with comparably minimal use of force or arrests."

Action Ready reported similar conduct from Queensland Police at Brisbane's 'March for Australia' rally, detailing how police formed a 'kettle' around counter-protesters "effectively enabling the [March for Australia] protesters to surround the group and facilitating a period of sustained verbal abuse and threats of violence".

"It appears that police may have perceived the risks to public safety posed by the ‘March for Australia’ to be lower than those posed by Palestine rallies," Action Ready concluded.

"This is troubling given the 'March for Australia’s documented links to the NSN, a known racist and neo-Nazi group."