A Channel Nine security guard was allegedly assaulted by the leader of an Australian neo-Nazi group on Monday afternoon, hours before A Current Affair aired a report on the threat of far-right extremism.
A Current Affair reports that Thomas Sewell, the leader of the far-right National Socialist Network and a former soldier, arrived at Nine’s Melbourne office demanding to see the show’s staff.
Video footage posted online by Sewell showed him being turned away from the premises by the security guard.
Sewell’s companion was heard to say a racial slur to the security guard, a man of colour, who calmly told the man to “Watch yourself.”
“Don’t you fucking touch me,” Sewell’s companion replied.
Sewell then punched the security guard repeatedly in the head, knocking him to the ground.
When people intervened to get Sewell off the security guard, Sewell continued to threaten him with a raised fist.
“You can’t put your hands on people. You’ve fucked with the wrong person,” he jeered as the security guard went back inside.
The security guard was taken to hospital by an ambulance, and CCTV footage of the attack was handed over to Victoria Police.
Victoria Police told The Guardian that cops attended an address in Melbourne’s Docklands following reports of an assault.
“It’s believed the victim was approached and assaulted by an unknown man at a Bourke Street business about 5pm,” the spokesperson said.
“The offender, along with another man, both fled the scene and remain outstanding.
“The victim was transported to hospital with injuries. Police are investigating the incident and ask anyone who witnessed it to come forward.”
In another video posted by Sewell, as reported by News.com.au, he claimed that the security guard had “grabbed the cameraman by the neck”.
“Out of reasonable self-defence for the cameraman, to stop him from having his throat crushed, I disabled the attacker,” he claimed.
The National Socialist Network are the group who burned a cross at Victoria’s Grampians National Park on the weekend before January 26.
The group were also spotted singing Waltzing Matilda at an ancient rock cavern, intimidating locals at Halls Gap by screaming racist slogans, and performing the Nazi salute.
The Age reported at the time that Victoria Police’s Counter Terrorism Command were collecting information on the National Socialist Network.
“[T]here is no place for that kind of anti-Semitism in our state, there is no place for that sort of bigotry and hatred,” Premier Daniel Andrews said of the incident.
Yesterday’s A Current Affair report revealed that Australia will for the first time outlaw a far-right extremist group, the Sonnenkrieg Division, which was founded in the United States.
ASIO recommended that Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton formally proscribe the group, which is not believed to have an Australian outpost, as a “terrorist organisation”. Supporters of the group could face up to 25 years in jail.
The move could lead the way for similar groups to also be outlawed.
“If there are other organisations that need to be listed, ASIO will consider those matters,” Dutton said.
The report also described the actions of the National Socialist Network, including their distribution of racist propaganda across Australia. The group are reportedly heralding a “white revolution” in encrypted chat rooms seen by A Current Affair.
An ASIO spokesperson told A Current Affair that far-right extremists made up about a third of its counter-terrorism efforts, describing them as a “serious, increasing and evolving threat to security”.
“Extreme right-wing groups are more organised, sophisticated and security conscious than before,” the spokesperson continued, adding that online spaces allowed extremists from across the world to connect.
“Unfortunately, increasing numbers of young Australians – some barely in their teens – are being radicalised.”
