Australia First Party

Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated
Leader Dr Jim Saleam
Deputy Leader Peter Schuback
Founder Graeme Campbell
Founded June 1996
Preceded by Australia First Party
Headquarters Tempe, NSW 2044
Newspaper Audacity
Youth wing Patriotic Youth League
(2002–06)
Eureka Youth League
(2010–present)
Ideology Anti-immigration[1]
Anti-multiculturalism[2]
Australian nationalism[3]
Economic nationalism[4]
Social conservatism[5]
Political position Far-right
National affiliation Minor Party Alliance
Colours      Blue
Slogan Restoring Nationhood and Wealth for Australians
House of Representatives
0 / 150
Senate
0 / 76
Website
Official website

The Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated (AFP) is an Australian far-right political party founded by Graeme Campbell and currently led by Jim Saleam.[6] The policies of Australia First have been described as nationalistic, anti-multicultural and economic protectionist.[7][8] Saleam is a convicted criminal, a former neo-Nazi (a former member of the National Socialist Party of Australia) and founder of the militant Australian white supremacist group National Action.[9] Saleam's criminal convictions include being an accessory before the fact in 1989 for his involvement in the shotgun attack on the home of African National Congress representative Eddie Funde as well as property offenses and fraud in 1984.[10]

History

The Australia First Party was established in June 1996 by Graeme Campbell, the longtime federal member for Kalgoorlie, and registered as a political party by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 13 September 1996.[11] Initially a Labor member, he was disendorsed by the party in 1995[12] He continued to sit in parliament as an independent, and was reelected as an independent in the Australian federal election, 1996. However he lost his seat in the 1998 election.[13] Campbell blamed his loss on Australia First being eclipsed by One Nation. In 2009, he claimed that, if not for the presence of a One Nation candidate, he would have picked up an additional 8.5 per cent of the vote, which would have been enough to keep him in the race.[14] He remained Australia First's leader until June 2001, when he left the party to stand (unsuccessfully) as a One Nation Senate candidate in Western Australia. In 2004, he attempted unsuccessfully to regain his old federal seat as an independent.[15] In 2007, he stood for the Senate in Western Australia in the federal election but only achieved 0.13 per cent of the vote.[16]

In 2002, Jim Saleam ran as an AFP candidate for a seat on Marrickville council, claiming "to oppose Marrickville being a Refugee Welcome Zone". [17] Later that year the party formed a youth wing, the neo-Nazi affiliated, white nationalist Patriotic Youth League. [18]

The party was deregistered by the AEC on 13 August 2004 for failing to nominate candidates at elections for four years.

The Party was again reestablished in 2007 by Saleam. [19] In July 2009, the party announced that it had reached its target of 500 members and was registering the New South Wales branch party with the AEC. The NSW party was registered on 13 June 2010, in time for the August 2010 general election.[20][21]

The party has been involved in Glenn Druery's Minor Party Alliance.[22][23]

On 2 May 2014 the party aligned itself with the Golden Dawn party of Greece, a Metaxist fascist organisation.[24]

On 14 July 2015, the Australian Electoral Commission advised that the Australia First Party had been deregistered due to the failure to demonstrate the required number of members.[25] It was reregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission on 1 March 2016 as the Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated.[26]

On 24 July 2016, the party endorsed and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke for the 2016 Louisiana election via Twitter.[27]

Policies

According to the programme of the Party, Australia First has eight core policies:[28]

  • Ensure Australia retains full independence
  • Rebuild Australian manufacturing industries
  • Control foreign ownership
  • Reduce and limit immigration
  • Abolish multiculturalism
  • Introduce Citizen's Initiated Referendums
  • Strengthen the family
  • Strive to rebuild a united Australia

Electoral performance

The Australia First Party have been largely unsuccessful electorally.

They have been elected to two local council seats, one in City of Penrith and one in City of Prospect. [29][30][31]

They are not a parliamentary party.

Saleam ran as a candidate in the Longman by-election, 2018 and received 684 votes or 0.8% of the vote.[32]

Patriotic Youth League

The Patriotic Youth League (PYL) is a far right, white nationalist youth organisation in Australia that has been linked to neo-Nazism and hate crimes.[33][34][35][36][37] The group was founded by former One Nation activist Stuart McBeth.[33] It is the youth wing of the Australia First Party and has been described by numerous media commentators and academics as "neo-Nazi" and "white nationalist".[33][34][36]

Activities

The Australia First Party's activities have mainly consisted of distributing pamphlets and protesting. The AFP have repeatedly distributed racist pamphlets and stickers, on some occasions they have attempted to deny having done so in the aftermath.[38] The AFP have also held numerous rallies, most of which have been labeled racist by the media and opponents, some of these rallies have ended in violent altercations. AFP claim that 150 members and supporters attended the Cronulla Riot. [39][40]

Racism allegations

Australia First Party is currently lead by a former neo-Nazi, Jim Saleam.[41] Saleam was a member of the short-lived National Socialist Party of Australia as a teenager during the 1970s.[42]

Australia First also endorsed independent candidate John Moffat, who was later criticised by B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Michael Lipshutz, Cronulla Liberal MP Malcolm Kerr and Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Jihad Dib for "inciting racial hatred".[43]

On 10 July 2009, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that David Palmer, the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan in Australia, said several Klan members had secretly joined Australia First. Palmer said Australia First had been identified as an Aryan party and would prove useful "in case the ethnics get out of hand and they need sorting out."[44] The Australia First party later endorsed former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke for the 2016 Louisiana election via Twitter.[45]

In July 2010, the Green Left Weekly reported that Australia First was distributing leaflets comparing Africans to monkeys, and "blaming Africans for the social problems in Sydney's west".[46] Australia First denied responsibility for the leaflets, claiming that they had been distributed in an attempt to discredit the party.[47]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Policy 4: Reduce and Limit Immigration". Australia First Party. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  2. ↑ "Policy 5: Abolish Multiculturalism". Australia First Party. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  3. ↑ "Identity Independence Freedom". 14 September 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Policy 2: Rebuild Australian Manufacturing Industries". Australia First Party. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  5. ↑ "Policy 7: Strengthen the Family". Australia First Party. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
  6. ↑ "Racist pamphlet targets Africans - National". smh.com.au. 9 August 2007. Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
  7. ↑ "The Programme of the Australia First Party". Australia First Party. Retrieved 2006-02-16.
  8. ↑ "The Eight Core Policies of the Australia First Party". Australia First Party. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 2006-02-16.
  9. ↑ Greason, David (1994), I was a teenage fascist, pp.283,284,289, McPhee Gribble
  10. ↑ Gibson, Jano; Frew, Wendy (12 January 2008). "No apology for white Australia policy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Australian Electoral Commission
  12. ↑ Scott Bennett (16 February 1999). "The Decline in Support for Australian Major Parties and the Prospect of Minority Government". Archived from the original on 13 July 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  13. ↑ Antony Green (21 December 2007). "Kalgoorlie". Australia Votes 2007. ABC News. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  14. ↑ Destiny Magazine, Issue #6
  15. ↑ Antony Green (21 December 2007). "Kalgoorlie". Australia Votes 2007. ABC News. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  16. ↑ ?Antony Green (2007). "Senate Results Western Australia". Federal Election 2007. ABC News. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  17. ↑ West, Andrew (29 February 2004). "White separatist takes on Marrickville". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2006-07-14.
  18. ↑ "Neo-Nazi link to campus anti-foreigner campaign". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 December 2004. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
  19. ↑ "Party Formation". Australia First Party. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  20. ↑ Jensen, Erik (9 July 2009). "Right-wing genie out of the bottle". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  21. ↑ AEC redirection page - Australian Electoral Commission
  22. ↑ Bitter dispute erupts over Senate preferences in Queensland: ABC 5 September 2013
  23. ↑ Alliance of micro parties boosts odds for likes of One Nation or Shooters and Fishers gaining Senate spot through preferences: Daily Telegraph 5 September 2013
  24. ↑
    • Gemenis, Kostas; Nezi, Roula (January 2012), The 2011 Political Parties Expert Survey in Greece (PDF), University of Twente, p. 4, Interestingly, the placement of the extreme right Chrysi Avyi does not seem to be influenced by this bias, although this has more do with the lack of variance in the data (32 out of 33 experts placed the party on 10)
    • Repoussi, Maria (2009), "Battles over the national past of Greeks: The Greek History Textbook Controversy 2006–2007" (PDF), Geschichte für heute. Zeitschrift für historisch-politische Bildung (1): 5
    • Grumke, Thomas (2003), "The transatlantic dimension of right-wing extremism", Human Rights Review, 4 (4): 56–72, doi:10.1007/s12142-003-1021-x, On October 24, 1998 the Greek right-wing extremist organisation Chrisi Avgi (Golden Dawn) was the host for the 5th European Youth Congress in Thessaloniki.
  25. ↑ "Deregistered/renamed political parties". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  26. ↑ "Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated". Australian Electoral Commission. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
  27. ↑ "Australia FirstParty (@AustFirstParty)". Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  28. ↑ "The Programme Of The Australia First Party". Ausfirst.alphalink.com.au. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
  29. ↑ "Profile of Cr. Bruce Preece". City of Prospect. Archived from the original on 19 September 2006. Retrieved 20 January 2007.
  30. ↑ "2006 Local Government Election Results" (PDF). Local Government Association of South Australia. p. 47. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2007.
  31. ↑ Schiller, Emma (14 September 2012). "Australia First Party council candidate elected". Penrith Press. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  32. ↑ 26, scheme=AGLSTERMS.AglsAgent; corporateName=Australian Electoral Commission; address=50 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra, ACT 2600; contact=13 23. "House of Representatives division information". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  33. 1 2 3 "Neo-Nazi link to campus anti-foreigner campaign". Sydney Morning Herald. 2 December 2004. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
  34. 1 2 Adam Bennett (19 December 2004). "Race hate group unstuck". Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  35. ↑ Danny Ben-Moshe (2006). "The Far-Right and the 2005 Cronulla Riots in Sydney". Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  36. 1 2 Ewin Hannan; Richard Baker (13 December 2005). "Nationalists boast of their role on the beach". Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  37. ↑ "Campus racism rises" by Sarah Price, The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 August 2004
  38. ↑ Australia First Denies Racist Mailbox FlyersArchived 20 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  39. ↑ Baker, Richard (14 December 2005). "Australia First: reclaiming the agenda". The Age. p. 11. Archived from the original on 3 February 2006. Retrieved 2006-02-25.
  40. ↑ Mulcair, John (10 October 2006). "Rally held at MP's office". St. George and Sutherland Shire Leader (Sutherland edition). p. 11. Archived from the original on 7 November 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-13.
  41. ↑ West, Andrew (29 February 2004). "No Apology For White Australia Policy". Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  42. ↑ Greason, David (1994), I was a teenage fascist, pp.283,284,289, McPhee Gribble
  43. ↑ Roberts, Greg (5 January 2007). "Cronulla candidate campaigns for race hatred". The Australian. p. 4. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  44. ↑ Jensen, Erik (10 July 2009). "We have infiltrated party: KKK". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax. p. 1. Archived from the original (reprint) on 2009-07-10. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  45. ↑ "Australia FirstParty (@AustFirstParty)". Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  46. ↑ Robson, Peter (24 July 2010). "Racist campaign leaflets condemned". Green Left Weekly. Socialist Alliance. Archived from the original (online) on 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
  47. ↑ "Racist leaflets not ours: Australia First". ABC Online. ABC. 27 July 2010. Archived from the original on 25 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
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