New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has labelled neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell an awful human being but has stopped short of commenting on a push to deport him from Australia to his native country.
More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition calling on the Australian government to strip Sewell of his citizenship and send him to New Zealand, where he was born, after he allegedly led an attack on Camp Sovereignty, a sacred Indigenous site in Melbourne, following Sunday’s anti-immigration protests.
When asked about the petition today, Luxon said it was a matter for Australia.
“Well, he sounds like a pretty awful human being,” Luxon said.
“He’s an Australian citizen, so I’ll let that run its course.”
Sewell, the leader of neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network, was born in New Zealand but served in the Australian Army from 2012-2014 and has been a prominent figure in far-right, white supremacist movements in Australia for about a decade.
Under the Citizenship Act, the immigration minister can apply for a court order to revoke someone’s Australian citizenship if they have been convicted of a serious offence, been sentenced to at least three years in jail, and their conduct is “so serious … that it demonstrates that the person has repudiated their allegiance to Australia”.
The 32-year-old Sewell is currently facing 25 charges over the Camp Sovereignty incident â which occurred while he was already on bail â including violent disorder and affray.
Police are seeking to keep him in custody while he faces those charges, arguing at a court hearing that Sewell’s behaviour “in recent times has been escalating in violence”.
“He is their (the National Socialist Network’s) leader and has complete control. He has shown he has a large group of followers who will attack on instruction,” Detective Senior Constable Saer Pascoe told a court on Wednesday.
Sewell had also been arrested and interviewed over an incident on August 9, for which he has been charged with assault and committing an offence while on bail, the court heard.
Sewell will fight all charges against him and his lawyer has claimed he is the subject of a “political attack”.
A decision on Sewell’s bail will be handed down tomorrow.
9News.com.au has contacted Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s office for comment about the petition to deport Sewell.
