Warning: distressing content.

Prominent far-right activist Thomas Sewell told supporters he could “become a terrorist” and “start killing people” if Child Protective Services intervened and removed children from neo-Nazi families.

Speaking on a podcast, the leader of the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network (NSN) told the audience that if the children were removed by court order, he would engage in terrorist acts and encourage others to do the same.

Sewell’s statements falsely claim that authorities have threatened to remove children from far-right families in the UK. Britain’s Home Office told the ABC that Sewell’s comments are “not accurate” and called them “disinformation.”

“If you take my child away from me, I’m going to start killing people, and I’m going to encourage everyone I know to also start killing the people responsible, probably starting with the police and judges who ordered for “A child is breaking away from one of us,” he told his followers in June.

A joint investigation by AM and 7.30 has revealed a worrying escalation in rhetoric from NSN leaders in recent months, as they clashed with the courts and police over the prosecution of the activist and co-founder of the NSN, Jacob Hersant, jailed under new anti-hate laws. last week.

Research by the ABC into their organization’s activities shows that the movement has spread across the country, holding events in five major Australian cities, bringing the total number of active people to several hundred.

Extremism experts and legal figures say Sewell’s comments also show a willingness by the far-right movement to use a false threat – that the government and courts could take away activists’ children because of their beliefs. parents – to justify violence against authorities.

In August, the Australian government raised the country’s terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable,” with security officials warning of a “potential increase in politically motivated violence, including terrorism, across all ideological spectrums.”

Last week, Hersant was sentenced to a month in prison after performing a Nazi salute to the press outside the county court in October last year.

“That’s when I’m going to start killing people.”

In a podcast released in June, Sewell, alongside far-right activists Blair Cottrell and Joel Davis, spoke openly about their politics of hate and how to motivate people to join their movement.

In a conversation about responses to far-right extremism in other countries, Sewell falsely claimed that in the United Kingdom, authorities had threatened to remove children from their families because of the ideology of their parents. parents.

He said if this happened in Australia he would “become a terrorist”.

“It’s the fucking line in the sand, and everyone needs to know that it’s the fucking line in the sand. And I’m very serious, fucking test us. You know, let’s do this peacefully, but touch these fucking children, touch our children, it’s over.

“That’s why we’re doing this, for our children. We want a future for our children. We want a big Australia for our children so they have a home to live in in the future. It’s everything. It’s the line in the sand.”

When the ABC asked Sewell whether advocating violence was justified in any context, he replied: “Abducting, threatening or seriously encouraging our children to be kidnapped or harmed in order to terrorize white Australians because of their political beliefs, is the guideline. the sand which once crossed will create a chain of irreversible events.

“If you hate this country, leave”

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told 7:30 that Sewell’s comments crossed a line and that if he doesn’t like living in Australia he should leave.

“Anyone who begins to assert, even in veiled terms, that they would be willing to embark on the path of violence, you have lost me long before you get to the violent threats, (especially) when you talk about hatred .speech in any form and harming Australians,” Mr Burke said on 7:30.

Mr Burke said the comments are a reminder that terrorism is not limited to groups on the other side of the world that Australians may be more familiar with.

He said nationalist and right-wing extremism is “just as dangerous and just as offensive” here.

“The terrorism alert level, the threat alert level is currently ‘probable,'” Mr. Burke said.

“It’s ‘probable’ because we take these issues seriously, we saw what you showed your viewers tonight, it’s important that this is exposed.”

Want to dox a police officer

Prominent members of Australia’s neo-Nazi network have also launched a series of targeted harassment campaigns against police officers.

Sewell said during a live stream that his supporters had identified a Victoria police officer who, during recent protests, attempted to remove the mask of a neo-Nazi protester.

He bragged about discovering personal information about the officer, saying members of his group had saved wedding photos and images of the officer’s family.

“I was just watching because this cop who was ripping off the masks, we found out who he is…I’m working on how to dox him (publicly identify him), because the doxxing laws haven’t gone into effect yet, but you have to do it in a way that it cannot be construed as harassment towards… his family,” he told his supporters.

“This fucking asshole wanted to bother our boys, and then you have, like, your wife and your whole family and the house you bought on social media.”

Last week, Sewell was charged with two counts of intimidating a police officer. A few days later, he was charged with a third count. He is expected to face trial on these charges next year.

Extremism expert Dr Kaz Ross, from the University of Tasmania, described the doxxing campaign as an intimidation tactic designed to silence opposition.

A growing movement

Several experts contacted by AM and 7h30 agree on the fact that the far-right movement is growing. Images broadcast on far-right encrypted channels and obtained by ABC show the scale of their movement with chapters across the country.

Events in Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, South Australia and Perth show the ranks are growing, as law enforcement attempts to suppress their activism.

Dr Kristy Campion, who studies far-right extremism in Australia, explained that at the center of the NSN’s worldview is the belief that if they do not act, it will be their children who suffer. .

“It’s worrying because it touches on a fundamental ideological tenet of the far right, which is that we’ve seen time and time again right-wing terrorists justify their violence by invoking children,” she said.

“They often position their actions and their violence as a balance between being worthy of their ancestors and their supposedly pure racial lineage, but also being worthy of their heirs, and that’s where we see the concepts around the child become so powerful within the far right as a concept to justify almost any kind of violence.

Dr. Ross agrees that the group’s membership is increasing, particularly over the past couple of years.

“The growth of the group is rapid, particularly in the last couple of years they have seen considerable growth,” Dr Ross said.

Dr Ross said the community cannot rely solely on government or police powers to solve the problem of radicalization.

“It’s a problem that East resolved in families, it is resolved in class. It’s resolved in the communities, it’s resolved in the sports clubs. These are the places where people need to have this conversation,” she said.

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