Australian police permitted a neo-Nazi rally to take place on Saturday morning outside the Parliament of New South Wales.
Some 60 men from the racist White Australia organization stood in two rows at the front gates on Macquarie Street in Sydney, displaying a large banner on the gates that read, “Abolish the Jewish Lobby,” ABC News (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) reported.
Yesterday outside NSW Parliament police gave permission, yet head of police & Chris Minns claim they knew nothing of it! Neo Nazis allowed a photo op, with no police in sight, in a spot that is usually forbidden as a gathering spot for pro Palestine protesters. Alarming! pic.twitter.com/9aVrOUVuzi
— LindaCairnesArtist From the River to the Sea (@CairnesLinda) November 9, 2025
The demonstration lasted about 20 minutes, according to police.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said that the state’s government found the rally to be “offensive,” ABC News reported.
It was allowed to take place due to an internal “communication error,” he said, taking the blame for failing to brief the government on the event.
Under New South Wales law, if a group notifies the police a week in advance about an intended protest and a court does not prohibit it, the gathering is permitted.
The state’s Premier Chris Minns said that the rally was “distressing” and a “shocking display of hatred and racism and antisemitism,” according to ABC News.
“I want them to be met with a clear and unambiguous message from the government, from political leaders, from civil life, from average New South Wales residents, that we’ve got no interest in neo-Nazis in Sydney,” he told reporters.
Section 93ZAA of the Crimes Act, in effect since August, makes it an offence to publicly incite hatred toward another person or group on the grounds of race.
Minns said that perhaps the police require more powers to protect “public harmony.”
ABC News cited NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip as saying, “It’s tempting to ignore the vile demonstration which was held today and avoid giving these dangerous neo-Nazis the attention they crave. But evil left unconfronted becomes evil that is normalized. The chilling images and despicable words of hate which were uttered today should never find a home or be accepted in our society, especially outside the heart of our democracy.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told ABC News that conspiracy theories about Jews controlling governments were “more prevalent now than at any time in the past 80 years.
“To defeat this, our law enforcement and security agencies need the right legislative tools to monitor and disrupt violent extremists and to prevent them from menacing or physically harming peaceful Australians,” he said.
“But the single most important thing we must do is to restore decency, civility and basic rationalism to our country,” Ryvchin said.
