A group known as White Australia, harboring neo-Nazi ideologies, has recently been classified as a banned hate organization. This move comes after the dissolution of the National Socialist Network, with some of its former members regrouping under this new name.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed that the National Socialist Network had undergone a transformation, now operating as White Australia. He explained this metamorphosis as a kind of “phoenix” act, where the group rebranded itself but retained its extremist core.
“Today, what many might refer to as the neo-Nazi group, known by various names such as the European Australian Movement, the National Socialist Network, and now White Australia, has been designated as the second outlawed hate group following updates to the Criminal Code,” Burke announced to the press this afternoon.
He elaborated further, saying, “Their strategy involved a change of name, akin to a phoenix rising, but their activities remained consistent with those that fulfill the criteria for this legislation.”
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) initially informed the government on April 22 that White Australia likely met the standards to be recognized as a hate group, citing their promotion and involvement in hate crimes.
Burke confirmed that the group indeed met all necessary criteria for categorization as a hate group, noting that their activities have been extensively reported in the media.
“We saw in Melbourne, specific violent action that you all covered…. we’ve also seen a series of actions of threats, some of which are different arrests that you’ve reported of people who’ve been motivated by a white supremacist ideology,” he said. 
At a March for Australia protest in Melbourne late last year, some members of the Nationalist Socialist Network stormed the sacred Indigenous Camp Sovereignty site and injured several people.
The assessment process has been completed and, with the opposition’s support, White Australia will officially be listed as a hate group at midnight. 
“This means that supporting, funding, training, recruiting, joining, or directing this group constitutes a criminal offence with a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison,” Burke said.
The group has been swept under the government’s tough new hate laws that were introduced in January, in the wake of the Bondi attack, to allow Home Affairs to list and ban a hate group. 
White Australia becomes the second group to be listed under the laws, following Hizb ut-Tahrir as the first.
The Nationalist Socialist Network, which was singled out as a concern by ASIO chief Mike Burgess last year, had disbanded before the laws came into effect.
Burke said if the group attempts to reform under a different name, the process to list them as a hate group would be much simpler.
“Effectively, it’s a simple regulation change. We don’t need to start the process from the start again,” he said. 
Burke said while the measures would not stop hateful ideologies and groups from forming, they would prevent groups from organising.
“It sends a clear message to people who believe in racial supremacy that their views have no place in modern Australia,” he said.
“We’re a country who judges you on who you are, not where you’re from.
“The neo-nazis have gone after almost every different group you can imagine, whether people are Jewish, whether they’re Muslim, whether people are of Asian heritage, whether they’re First Nations.”
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