Wednesday January 4, 2005 07:37 AM AAP
Australia First to re-register as party
The ultra-nationalist Australia First movement is to re-register as a political party.
The far-right group has written to supporters seeking the 500 membership forms necessary to register with the Australian Electoral Commission, The Australian newspaper reports.
It then plans to target federal and local council elections with candidates expected to start campaigning in the next few weeks to keep Australia predominantly white.
“What’s being done in Australia now is a situation where the European identity is being deprecated further, to the point where Europeans will disappear next century,” the newspaper quotes the party’s NSW secretary, Jim Saleam, as saying.
“Under certain circumstances that would be called a genocide, but it’s not, it’s called progress.”
Mr Saleam, who was jailed for three-and-a-half years in 1991 for possessing a firearm and organising a shotgun attack on the home of the African National Congress’ Australian representative, Eddie Funde, denied any personal links to neo-Nazi groups, the paper said.
Australia First, which was de-registered in 2004 for failing to put forward a federal election candidate in four years, has been accused of being linked to the neo-Nazi movement and its members were seen handing out pamphlets at the race riot in Cronulla, the newspaper says.
The group intends to target council seats in four NSW electorates including Sutherland Shire, Marrickville, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle where it also plans to contest the office of mayor.
