A free speech advocacy group has spoken out against the Labor government’s listing of the White Australia Party as a prohibited hate group, saying the ban sets a “dangerous precedent”.
The Free Speech Union of Australia (FSU) urged a parliamentary committee to recommend the listing be disallowed, and has applied to make submissions in the White Australia Party and Thomas Sewell’s upcoming High Court challenge of the hate group legislation.
The WAP, also known as White Australia, was banned on May 15 under new laws passed by both major parties in response to the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack, and the listing is now under review by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS).
In a public submission, one of four published by the committee, the FSU stated that while it was not sympathetic to the WAP or its ideology it recommended the PJCIS advise both houses of government to disallow the listing.
The FSU warned the hate group laws allowed the government to “decide, in private and on secret advice, which political associations citizens may join, fund and vote for”.
“Today’s target is a group of neo-Nazis whom nobody will defend,” the FSU stated in its submission.
“The next government to inherit it may point it at environmental protesters, religious congregations, or ethnic community organisations whose speech about a foreign conflict deems to be hateful.
“Every member of this Committee should ask how the power would look in the hands of the political party that they trust the least.”
The free speech group further noted that the laws put members of all political parties at risk of prosecution, and said the “chilling effect on lawful electoral participation is obvious and immediate”.
The FSU also argued that the listing would fail if it was subject to a judicial review as it did not meet the statutory tests, and said the government should explain why the listing process was restarted on the same day at the WAP applied to register as a party.
“In 1951 the High Court, and then the Australian people, refused to let the executive outlaw its political enemies even amid genuine and well-founded fear. We respectfully ask that this Committee in 2026 does the same,” the submission stated in conclusion.
The only other three submissions published by the Committee so far are from Minster for Home Affairs Tony Burke, Australia’s most powerful Jewish lobby group the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism.
Other legal experts and civil liberties advocates have warned the laws “abolish liberal democracy” as they can be used to ban any political party, and the legislation has sparked calls for a constitutional bill of rights to protect freedom of political communication.
The WAP and Mr Sewell’s constitutional challenge is set to be heard by the High Court in September, and will determine whether the government can use the legislation to ban rival political parties.
A GiveSendGo set up to fund the legal action has raised almost $200,000 so far.
Header image: Left, members of the disbanded National Socialist Network (supplied). Right, Tony Burke (Nine News).
