Australia Starts Terror Group List With Islamists, Neo-Nazis

The Australian federal government is preparing to target Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia and neo-Nazi organization White Australia under a new legal framework that would criminalize membership and support for designated “hate organizations,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.

The proposed regime is part of a broader package of counter-antisemitism legislation advanced following the massacre. Under the plan, the Home Affairs Ministry, in coordination with the attorney-general, would maintain a list of prohibited hate organizations that fall short of the legal threshold required for designation as terrorist groups, but whose conduct is deemed unlawful and dangerous.

Speaking after Cabinet and National Security Committee meetings, Burke said the new framework is intended to close a gap in Australia’s national security laws. “I’ve spoken before about my disgust for a very long time at organizations like Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Nationalist Socialist Network,” he said, referring to White Australia by its former name. Burke said he had instructed his department to assess whether the groups’ past conduct met the standard for prohibition.

“Their behavior needs to be unacceptable, their behavior needs to be unlawful, and their behavior needs to be enough that we can proscribe the organization and prohibit their activity in Australia,” he said.

Both groups have drawn sustained criticism from Australian officials in recent years. Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, which advocates for the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate, has held public events condemning Israel and Western governments, while stopping short of explicitly calling for violence. White Australia has staged high-profile protests promoting Nazi ideology and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Australian intelligence officials have warned that Hizb ut-Tahrir operates deliberately within legal gray zones. The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization has said the group’s rhetoric attracts attention and recruits while contributing to the normalization of antisemitic narratives, even as it avoids overt incitement to violence.

Following the Bondi Beach Pogrom, Hizb ut-Tahrir issued statements rejecting claims of antisemitism and accusing Israel and “Zionists” of exploiting the attack for political purposes. The group declined to condemn the massacre directly, arguing that doing so would imply collective guilt and legitimize government responses.

White Australia has also remained under scrutiny as it attempts to formalize itself as a federal political party. In November, the group staged a protest outside the New South Wales parliament featuring overtly antisemitic slogans, prompting new state legislation criminalizing conduct that supports Nazi ideology.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said additional post-Bondi legislative measures are still being refined. These include expanded offenses for incitement to violence, harsher penalties for hate speech and property damage, visa cancellation powers for individuals engaged in radical activity, and bans on importing extremist materials.

The proposed hate organization list would represent a significant expansion of Australia’s legal tools for addressing extremist groups operating below the terrorism threshold, as lawmakers seek to respond to rising antisemitism and political extremism.