Neo-Nazi leader arrested by AFP at Bondi over alleged harassment of federal MP

A neo-Nazi who led the anti-Jewish rally outside NSW parliament has been taken into custody and charged by the Australian Federal Police for allegedly harassing a federal parliamentarian.

Police began investigating National Socialist Network spokesperson Joel Davis after identifying a message on an encrypted platform, before seizing electronic devices at Bondi on Thursday.

“The message allegedly encouraged abusive and hateful messages to be directed towards a federal parliamentarian following their condemnation of a National Socialist Network protest on 8 November, 2025,” the AFP said in a statement.

Federal independent Allegra Spender condemned the NSN after 60 members held an “Abolish The Jewish Lobby” rally outside parliament on November 8, at which Davis gave an antisemitic speech and led chants of the Hitler Youth slogan “blood and honour”.

Online, Davis called on supporters to “rhetorically rape” the Wentworth MP. Spender, as well as NSW Liberal shadow minister Kellie Sloane, revealed at the time that they had received threats and passed them on to police.

“It was pretty shocking and not something you ever want to hear but we’ve referred it to the police and I have a lot of confidence in the Australian Federal Police,” Spender said.

AFP Detective Superintendent Jeremy Staunton said on Thursday “the AFP supports freedom of speech and political expression but let it be clear any alleged criminal behaviour, including threats and harassment, will not be tolerated”.

Davis is expected to face a bail court hearing in Sydney on Friday.

The 30-year-old acts as a leader and propagandist within the NSN, an explicitly racist group that calls for mass deportations of non-white Australians. He gives media interviews, holds regular livestreams with other senior NSN figures, posts lengthy messages on social media and speaks at public events.

In September, he attended a Western Heritage Australia event held inside NSW Parliament House. Video obtained by the Herald showed him speaking from a lectern in the historic Jubilee Room, using a Q and A section to ask about the benefits of “racism” and “supremacy”.

A spokesperson for the organisers said they did not screen attendees.

NSW Police, who did not oppose the anti-Jewish rally outside parliament, are still investigating whether rally participants committed any crimes, such as public incitement of racial hatred. Davis’s speech contained a baseless and highly offensive suggestion about antisemitic attacks against synagogues this year and broad denigrations of “Jews”, as well as criticism of Jewish organisations.

The rally took aim at NSW protest laws and argued that “the white man” was disempowered in Australian society.

Davis recently laid out the group’s priority to gain registration as a “White Australia” political party in NSW and Victoria, suggesting that the NSW upper house was a key target.

“In NSW, in theory, we will get more preferences,” he said. “That’s why we really want to be registered to contest this election in NSW”.

On Wednesday, the NSW government introduced to parliament new laws that would make it a crime to publicly display support for Nazi ideology, punishable by a $22,000 fine and up to two years in prison.

But the government is refusing to release the findings of an independent review of hate speech offences, which retired Supreme Court judge John Sackar, KC, submitted several days before the Parliament House rally.

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