NSW looks to mirror German laws banning Hitler Youth chants

The NSW government will seek to mirror laws in Germany that ban phrases such as “blood and honour” – a slogan associated with the Hitler Youth – as it considers strengthening hate speech laws amid the fallout from a police-authorised neo-Nazi rally outside parliament.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell on Monday night told the Herald he had been briefed about plans for the National Socialist Network (NSN) to hold its protest five days before the event, but in an “oversight” had not relayed that to Commissioner Mal Lanyon because he had not received information that suggested that any aspect of the demonstration would be illegal.

“In hindsight, it was an oversight of mine not to tell the commissioner because of the organisational, political and public interest in this group, and I have since apologised to the commissioner for that oversight,” Thurtell said.

Thurtell said he had informed Lanyon on Saturday, as soon as he became aware of the fallout from the protest, adding that although he was given limited details in a verbal briefing, he should have relayed the information.

As political leaders and Lanyon scramble to explain why Saturday’s rally wasn’t blocked, and female MPs who condemned the gathering were subjected to threats of rape and death, Premier Chris Minns has flagged “bigger, bolder” lines separating hate speech from free speech.

Blood and honour, or blut und ehre, is a banned phrase in Germany under Section 86a of the country’s criminal code because it was a central slogan for the banned Hitler Youth.

The phrase was chanted at the neo-Nazi rally on Saturday but Minns said on Monday it was unlikely to be captured under existing racial hatred laws.

The NSW government in 2022 banned the public display of Nazi symbols, while hate speech laws were changed this year to make it a crime to incite hatred against people based on their race.

About 60 members of the NSN attended Saturday’s rally, which began at 10am and included a large banner that read “Abolish the Jewish Lobby”.

The Herald can also reveal NSW Speaker Greg Piper knew ahead of time that neo-Nazis planned to rally on the steps of Parliament House, only to be told it was not an option to relocate the protest despite his concerns.

Piper said he was aghast when he discovered plans for the rally late on Friday night and immediately asked his staff to contact the parliament’s security team for an urgent intervention.

“It seemed quite evident to me that this should not go on outside the parliament, but we were told there was nothing that could be done,” Piper said.

“Most people would assume this would have gone up the chain to the premier. If I knew, so should he. [So] to say this is a failure of communication is an understatement. This is a failure to be politically attuned to the implications of something like this.”

Two Sydney female politicians revealed they have been subjected to threats of death and serious violence after the rally took place on Macquarie Street.

Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane and Wentworth MP Allegra Spender have both referred threats they have received to NSW Police after they spoke out against the group of men protesting against the “Jewish lobby”.

Posts seen by this masthead, which are too graphic to repeat, threaten both women with extreme sexual violence. Sloane has deleted her X account.

“I will not be intimidated by this group or by people who support them,” Sloane said. “I will not be bullied out of saying what I think, and I will stand up for people in my community and for the broader community of Sydney who don’t like hate, who don’t want division any more, and who don’t accept this kind of behaviour.”

Minns said threats made against Spender and Sloane were designed to silence critics of Nazis in Sydney.

“Civic society has to stand up against neo-Nazis in our community – those politicians did exactly that. I’m appalled that they were subject to that kind of abuse, and we stand in solidarity with them today,” he said.

Lanyon on Monday said a notice of the NSN’s intention to hold the rally was lodged with Sydney City Local Area Command on October 28.

Attendees wore dark uniforms with the NSN insignia stitched into the shoulders of their jackets. Some partially obscured their identities with hats or sunglasses. Many showed their faces in a sign of growing boldness by parts of the organisation.

Two NSN leaders spoke, criticising not only Jewish groups but Jewish people in general. They used a number of antisemitic tropes about power and influence while speaking in favour of the authority of “the white man”.

Minns said on Monday that the decision by police not to challenge the protest did not make its way to his office, but said the government would work on stronger laws to ban Nazi speech and slogans.

“They use a lot of political intrigue and quite a clever political banner to have their racist rallies so that’s what we’re looking at in particular whether that Nazi symbol legislation is fit for purpose,” he said.

Lanyon said a communication error was to blame for the Nazi rally.

“There was an internal communication error,” he said on Nine’s Today show. “We have protests each year. This year so far, we’ve already managed over 1000 protests. Last year, we had over 1500.”

Lanyon went on to tell ABC Radio Sydney that police had sought legal advice before the protest, but did not have the legal standing to prevent the group from gathering.

He said that he would challenge any further protest by the group in the NSW Supreme Court.

Piper said he was very upset about the protest.

“I do not want parliament [used] as a blank canvas for a neo-Nazi white supremacy group to take photos for their political collateral,” Piper said.

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