An influential pro-mass immigration Liberal MP has said he hopes the government is able to defend its banning of the White Australia Party in the High Court.
Julian Leeser, who is Jewish, helped convince then-leader Sussan Ley to back Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s “hate speech” and “hate groups” laws in order to combat anti-Semitism in the wake of the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack, and said on Monday night he was “proud” to support the legislation.
The legislation, which legal experts have warned is open to “egregious abuse”, was passed in late January and has since been used to list Islamist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir and White Australia as prohibited hate groups.
Nationalist activist Thomas Sewell launched a legal challenge in the High Court on the grounds that the laws are unconstitutional as they prevent freedom of government and political communication, and warned they effectively make White Australians “second-class citizens” in their own country.
Already some pearl clutching. https://t.co/V9AtdA1Cce pic.twitter.com/l2l639GyNa
— 🇦🇺 Nix (@viii_nix) May 19, 2026
Mr Leeser, who previously demanded new laws to prevent the White Australia Party from contesting elections in November, spoke out about the High Court challenge in an interview with Sky News host Sharri Markson.
“There’s news that the neo-Nazi socialist party is looking at taking legal steps so they can set themselves up as a political party,” Markson said.
“It’s just extraordinary, I hope that the government strongly defends the laws that were passed at the beginning of this year, that I was proud to support, laws that sought the banning of neo-Nazi organisations, they have no place in this country,” Mr Leeser replied.
“We can’t possibly have a neo-Nazi political party here in Australia,” Markson responded.
“I think that would be extraordinarily damaging. There are a million Australians that went to fight in World War 2, 40,000 of them made the supreme sacrifice fighting against Nazi ideology, we are desecrating the memory of our brave Australian soldiers that fought against Nazism if we have a Nazi political party in this country,” Mr Leeser said.
“Absolutely, and I had the same sentiment when we saw some of those neo-Nazis booing at Anzac Day, I thought they shouldn’t even be there,” Markson said.
Markson, who is also Jewish, has been an outspoken supporter of state and federal laws restricting speech and protest in response to anti-Semitism, publishes stories based on Mossad sources, said she feels safer in Israel than in Australia, and pushed for Covid vaccine mandates during the pandemic.
Mr Leeser, who has said he wants “more Indians” in his Sydney electorate of Berowra and campaigned for Mr Albanese’s failed Voice to Parliament, won the prestigious McKinnon Prize for Political Leadership’s Federal Award alongside fellow Jewish MP Josh Burns last year for uniting to oppose anti-Semitism.
