How Serious Are Australia's Neo-Nazis?
6/21/202645 min
What does it mean to be a Nazi in 2026?
Crime reporter at The Age, Sherryn Groch joins us to examine how extremist groups attract followers online, who they're targeting, and the symbols, language and online communities that help these movements grow.
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CREDITS:
Host: Meshel Laurie
Guest: Sherryn Groch
Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard
The visual version of this episode contains photographs from The Australia Institute (0:07), AAP / James Ross (0:14) and The Age (0:20)
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMeshel Laurie· Host0:00
[gentle music] This is Australian True Crime with Michelle Lawrie. What does it mean to be a Nazi in 2026? As extremist groups adapt to the digital age, crime reporter at The Age, Sharon Groch, examines how they attract followers online, who they're targeting, and the symbols, language, and online communities that help these movements grow. This is Australian True Crime. We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin nation. And a warning: this episode of the podcast contains graphic descriptions of violence. All right. So we need you to tell us, please, where are we in 2026? What does it mean to be a Nazi in Australia?
Sherryn Groch· Guest0:52
Well, I guess it means exactly how it sounds. Um, these are Hitler sh- wor- worshiping, swastika-waving, out-and-proud Nazis. They hate Jews. They wanna deport people of color and build their own white-only societies, you know, run by men, of course.
Meshel Laurie· Host1:10
Mm.
Sherryn Groch· Guest1:10
Um, but I guess at the moment, Nazis in Australia, they're in a bit of a strange moment in their evolution where because the government has cracked down on them again, they've sort of scuttled back into trying to appear like everyday Aussies just concerned about immigration numbers, you know, fed up with all the woke lefty politics.