A leading Australian nationalist says his group will press charges against the Liberal Party if it hires private security to keep them away from public events.
Right-wing activist Joel Davis spoke out on free speech app Telegram on Tuesday in response to revelations that Victorian Liberal Party met with an expert security firm due to concerns about members of the National Socialist Network (NSN) attending a Melbourne protest hosted by Liberal MPs Brad Battin and Ann-Marie Hermans.
The briefing was held after Mr Davis and fellow nationalists Thomas Sewell, Tim Lutze, Nathan Bull, Jimeone Roberts and Will Casdorff showed up at a rally last month where hundreds of locals had gathered to complain about Berwick Springs Lake being renamed after the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, on November 9.
The Thursday seminar discussed “protection strategies” and referred to the nationalist group gatecrashing a women’s rights rally last year which was partly organised by Liberal MP Moira Deeming, The Age reported. Opposition leader John Pesutto later expelled Ms Deeming, who is now suing him for defamation for linking her to Nazis.
“The Liberal Party are apparently seeking to hire private security to prevent us from coming to public events in public places and peacefully co-existing as members of the public in their general vicinity,” Mr Davis said on Tuesday.
“It’s actually illegal to use hired thugs to physically intimidate law-abiding fellow citizens, so if they intend on going through with this they better get ready to hire lawyers because we will be filming and documenting it and pressing charges.”
Mr Battin and Ms Hermans said they left the rally soon after the nationalist activists arrived, but Mr Pesutto did not make a statement about the incident and has since been under fire for his response and how it differed from his treatment of Ms Deeming after the March 2023 protest.
“Why did Battin and Hermans wait three days to put out a statement disassociating themselves from the Nazis and only do so when they were called out by the press? Will they be treated in the same way as Moira Deeming?” Labor demanded to know.
“John Pesutto has known that neo-Nazis attended a Liberal organised event for days and has said nothing. Why?
“Why does the Liberal Party continue to put on events that attract Nazis?”
Ms Deeming also spoke out about the incident on X last week, writing: “Despite recent political precedents that have been set, my own position remains unchanged: Guilt by association is a harmful, reckless fallacy- the refuge of bullies & cowards who cannot win arguments on merit.
“Accusations of ‘Guilt by association’ over intrusions by race-baiting political opportunists into other people’s legitimate causes **actually platforms & promotes their hateful agendas** by granting them a ‘hecklers veto’. I sincerely hope that injustice is not compounded by injustice.”
Mr Pesutto told The Age the MPs acted appropriately by leaving immediately and calling police, saying “they weren’t in any other position to stop who was turning up”, and when asked about the comparisons to Ms Deeming’s case he said: “These are not the same situations.”
The Berwick Springs Lake public hearing attracted more than 600 locals who are unhappy they were not consulted about the state government’s name change and have started a campaign to reverse it. The renaming came after years of lobbying from a Sikh community leader who has also stated that the lake is “indigenous land”.
The Sikh community have since organised their own petition demanding the government keep the name change, and have been supported by a collection of “multifaith and multicultural leaders”.
In a statement last week the collection of Jewish, Muslim, Christian and ethnic minority advocacy groups said to the Sikh community: “We stand with you in solidarity and harmony. This is not just about one name, or one place. It’s how we honour the contribution of diverse communities in the story of our state.
“Here in Victoria, we don’t just tolerate diversity, we celebrate it.”
There were 91,000 Sikhs in Victoria at the time of the 2021 Census, and the lake’s surrounding suburbs of Berwick and Narre Warren South were home to just 670 and 595 followers of Sikhism respectively.
Mr Pesutto on Monday spoke at a party hosted by Sikh charity Turbans 4 Australia to celebrate the birthday of Guru Nanak at Parliament House in Melbourne.
A day earlier Mr Battin attended a Sikh event at the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Sports & Cultural Club Melbourne where he was made Club Patron. Ms Hermans was also present.
Header image: Left, Joel Davis and Tim Lutze at the public hearing. Right, Brad Battin speaks at the event (Facebook)
