Neo Nazi Thomas Sewell (C) leads his supporters during a "March for Australia" anti-immigration rally in Melbourne. Photo: AFP / WILLIAM WEST
The New Zealand-born leader of a white supremacist group in Australia is appearing in court charged with offences related to intimidating a police officer and breaching an intervention order in 2024.
It comes after neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell, aged 32 according to police, was recently involved in an alleged violent attack on a protest camp.
Meanwhile, a petition to deport Sewell back to New Zealand reached over 70,000 signatures following another incident on Tuesday.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has weighed in, saying it was "quite horrific" to hear about Sewell's actions at a press conference.
Police said Sewell was arrested on Tuesday, and is being questioned over an incident at a First Nations camp in Melbourne on Sunday.
Camp Sovereignty organisers said about 40 men dressed in black, some armed with flagpoles and sticks, violently attacked protesters following an anti-immigration rally.
Camp founder Robbie Thorpe told the ABC that four people were injured, including two who spent the night in hospital.
Police said they are also aware of an incident at a press conference with Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Tuesday, which two people interrupted.
They were heard shouting insults and accusations at Allan, whose security staff blocked the men.
Allan said she "never expected to come face-to-face with a neo-Nazi… at a press conference".
Also on Tuesday, Sewell appeared in court charged with offences related to intimidating a police officer and breaching an intervention order in 2024.
MP Josh Burns said neo-Nazis had been on the steps of parliament.
"Seeing neo-Nazis cowardly walk around our streets in masks and in uniform, in black-cladded clothes, cowardly hiding their own identities is completely unacceptable," Burns said. "Having neo-Nazis turn up to the press conference of the premier and elected officials is completely unacceptable."
Author and researcher of far-right book Fear, Byron Clark, told Midday Report he believed neither New Zealand nor Australia wanted Sewell in their country.
"I'm not suprised that a lot of Australians don't want him there - the trouble is I don't think we really want him here either," he said.
"The recent protests in Australia against - quote on quote - mass immigration, shows the far-right really having some influence. They didn't really make much of an attempt to distance themselves from these more extreme elements, these self identified neo-Nazis like Sewell.
Clark said Sewell was born in New Zealand but he moved over to Australia at an early age.
"While he's New Zealand born, I consider him to be an Australian far-right activist."
He said Sewell has been arrested at least once before and was in contact with the Christchurch mosque shooter before the latter moved to New Zealand.
'A dangerous loophole'
The person behind the online petition, whose identity remains anonymous, noted it was likely Sewell held dual citizenship, saying he was likely granted NZ citizenship automatically at birth, and would have had to become an Australian citizen before 2012, as required for his enlistment in the Australian Army. There was no indication Sewell had renounced either citizenship, they said.
The petition said Australia's current laws made it nearly impossible to revoke citizenship from violent extremists, even when they held dual nationality and posed a clear threat to public safety.
"The law protects citizenship as a near-untouchable status, even in cases of hate-fuelled violence, racial intimidation, and ideological extremism.
"This means that individuals like Thomas Sewell a convicted violent offender and neo-Nazi organiser cannot be stripped of citizenship or deported under current law, despite leading a group that threatens social cohesion."
The petitioner called for a reform of Australia's Citizenship Act, to allow court-ordered revocation for serious post-citizenship crimes, and enable deportation after citizenship was revoked.
This would close "a dangerous loophole", they said, and ensure citizenship was not a "shield for hate, violence, or racial intimidation".
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
