CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
“So basically…” began the exhausted Josh Frydenberg.
He’s finally locked down a face to face with the Prime Minister, and he’s got something to discuss.
With relatives and community members blowing up his phone non-stop since Australia Day, the Federal Treasurer has had to take it upon himself to address the very concerning rise of Neo-Nazism in Australia.
Because the PM and the Home Affairs Ministers don’t appear too concerned about it.
As the highest ranked Australian politician of Jewish heritage, the duty has fallen into his lap to explain to his Prime Minister why these images of highly organised Neo-Nazi skinheads burning crosses in rural Victoria over the weekend is something their government should flag, or even address.
“I’m not sure if you know…” JoFry continues.
“But like… This major historical event occurred in the early 1940s and…”
“Most people would agree it was a bad thing”
“And well basically. That’s how my family ended up in Australia”
This comes as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation revealed that far-right violent extremism constituted up to 40% of its counter-terrorism caseload – a significant increase since the Christchurch massacre, where a 28-year-old Australian white supremacist murdered 51 Muslims in cold blood, after being radicalised on online Nazi forums in Australia.
Frydenberg, as a descendant of a Holocaust survivors, has been quick to condemn this movement – and has urged his indifferent Prime Minister to join him.
However, over the weekend 40 masked men rallied in The Grampians to burn crosses in Klu Klux Klan ceremony, scaring off locals and tourists.
It is not lost on anyone, especially the Treasurer, that if these men were brown and chanting about Allah, both the Prime Minister and Peter Dutton would have held several live press conferences by this point.
Unlike Scott Morrison, whose marketing strategy is based around never openly admitting that white Christians could be bad guys, intelligence officers at ASIO blunt about the growing risk of far-right terrorism, labelling it an “enduring threat” that is “real and growing”.
Right now, the burden to stamp out Neo-Nazism in Australia is being carried by Josh Frydenberg MP – and he’s having a hard time convincing the Prime Minister that he should be doing the same.
“Look” sighs Frydenberg, as Morrison continues to check his phone to see how many likes he got on his most recent Instagram post.
“This might be normal in Cronulla…”
“But looking at history… When you see groups of young men are burning crosses and shouting ‘Heil Hitler’…”
“It’s not a very good sign of things to come”
