Barnaby Joyce has denied meeting neo-Nazis at a Canberra casino, insisting he encountered the group by chance and did not knowingly spend time with them.
The One Nation MP said he had visited the casino about a fortnight ago for a social occasion with a friend before being approached by a group whose identity was initially unknown to him.
“After a while, I start to get a little bit worried about them because they start talking about Anglo-Celtic and immigration and stuff like that. So I quietly make my way away,” Joyce told News24.
He said he only later realised the group were members of the National Socialist Network, an openly neo-Nazi organisation.
“Now, the story that they’re running around is that I arrived with them. That’s a lie. There was an organised meeting with them. That’s a lie. I left with them. That’s a lie,” Joyce said.
An email sent to Joyce by a Crikey journalist alleged that he had entered and left the casino with National Socialist Network members including Hugo Lennon and Thomas Sewell. It claimed the group had spent about two hours sitting and talking together, including discussion of the organisation’s legal case before the High Court.
Joyce rejected the allegation that he had knowingly met the extremists, saying: “Did I actually even know who they were when they came up? No, I didn’t.”
“I don’t follow the Nazi Party, but they seemed like weird dudes, and I made sure we stopped the conversation,” he said. “And I went back and talked to some tradies from the Central Coast. They were a lot more sensible.”
Joyce also said he “can’t stand” neo-Nazis and that his family had fought against fascists.
“I don’t want anything to do with them at all,” he said.
National Socialist Network legal challenge
The National Socialist Network is petitioning the High Court to overturn laws introduced after the Bondi massacre that outlawed neo-Nazi and Islamist groups.
Sewell and his legal team are arguing that a federal ban on the group’s successor, the White Australia Party, should be struck down. They claim the Commonwealth exceeded its powers and breached the implied freedom of political communication and the separation of powers.
Sewell has said the movement would support One Nation’s efforts to form government if the challenge succeeds, declaring that the outcome could affect whether Pauline Hanson wins the election.
Crikey editor Alisha Rouse said Joyce had been contacted for comment as part of the publication’s standard practice.
