CANBERRA, ACT — South African man Matthew Gruter was taken into immigration detention in the early hours of this morning, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said.
About 4am this morning, immigration officials took Gruter into custody, where he will remain until he’s deported or obtains his own ticket to leave. It’s understood he was taken to Villawood detention centre, where he will stay until he is deported.
The white supremacist group, the National Socialist Network (NSN) – which has now begun rebranding as ‘White Australia’ – of which Gruter is a member, has launched an online fundraiser for him, which has garnered nearly $20,000 in donations since being set up today. The fundraiser page claims Gruter would “fight to remain in Australia via every possible avenue.”
According to the National Socialist Network, Border Force “raided” the house at 4am, separated him from his family, and he’s now in detention at Villawood awaiting deportation.
“They’re painting him as an upstanding, honourable nationalist,” the NSN New South Wales’ leader, Jack Eltis, posted to social media.
Burke says the man has “very limited” options to appeal, because the visa was cancelled by a ministerial decision, adding that he expects Gruter “will be gone very soon” even with the right to appeal to courts.
“What could be a clearer example of someone showing they don’t care about cohesion in Australia, than turning up to a Nazi rally?
“Multicultural Australia and modern Australia are the same thing. Someone who gets involved in neo-Nazism in Australia shouldn’t pretend they’re somehow patriotic. They hate modern Australia.
“My priority is that Australians feel at home, feel safe, that they are safe in Australia. Anyone who wants to stand in the way of that can find the full force of the law coming down on them,” Minister Burke said.
Matthew Gruter was one of 60 black-clad demonstrators who were allowed to assemble outside NSW parliament and yell Hitler Youth chants on Saturday, November 8.
Gruter was among several demonstrators later unmasked, triggering Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to cancel his visa yesterday.
The ‘March for Australia’ group and ‘Put Australia First’ have strong direct ties to the National Socialist Network, including recruiting British neo-Nazi Tommy Robinson as a guest speaker at their anti-immigration rallies. The two former groups were created from “anti-vaxxers” during the COVID pandemic.
Many of the participants have been exposed by the work of the White Rose Society.
-With AAP & Snarky Gherkin.
