Blair Cottrell | |
---|---|
Born | November 1989 (age 34) Australia |
Known for | Founding United Patriots Front, far-right activism, neo-Nazism |
Other political affiliations |
Part of a series on |
Far-right politics in Australia |
---|
Part of a series on |
Islamophobia |
---|
Part of a series on |
Antisemitism |
---|
Category |
Blair Cottrell (born November 1989) is an Australian far-right extremist and neo-Nazi. [1] [2] He is the former chairman and founding member of the United Patriots Front (UPF) and the Lads Society. He has been convicted of several charges, including stalking, arson, steroid dealing and burglary, and has spent time in prison.
Cottrell has right-wing extremist views, he has been described by numerous media outlets and Australia's former Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, as a neo-Nazi. He has been convicted of charges of inciting hatred against communities. [3] [4] [5]
Cottrell has stated a desire to see a portrait of Adolf Hitler hung in Australian classrooms and for copies of Mein Kampf to be "issued annually" to students, and has made anti-Semitic and racist comments in support of Nazism. [6] [7]
In 2018, Cottrell openly advocated for Remigration, [8] calling for the Deportation of "enemies of my country" and the execution of immigrants who refused to leave. [9] [10]
In October 2015, Blair Cottrell replaced Shermon Burgess as chairman of the United Patriots Front, and is a founding member of the Lads Society. [6] [11] [12]
In September 2016, Cottrell was a guest on the ABC Hack Live show. [13] [14]
In September 2017, Cottrell, Neil Erikson, and Chris Shortis were found guilty by a magistrate of inciting contempt against Muslims after they had enacted and made a video of a fake beheading, to protest against the building of a mosque in Bendigo. Each was fined $2,000. [15] [5] Cottrell lodged an appeal, applying for his case to be heard in the High Court of Australia and arguing that he had been charged under an "invalid law". This was thrown out in February 2019, and he tried to have the matter heard in the Supreme Court of Victoria. The district court judge ruled that there were matters to be decided in her court, such as his intentions in making the video, before the case could proceed to a higher court, and set a date for the appeal to be heard in the county court. [16] The county court dismissed Cottrell's appeal in December 2019. The judge also said: "even if the ends were political, the means remain vilifying. Having a political end is not a defence to the charge.“ [17]
In the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand on 15 March 2019, it was discovered that the perpetrator, Brenton Harrison Tarrant of Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, had interacted with Cottrell's United Patriots Front (UPF) on its Facebook pages. He affectionately called Blair Cottrell "Emperor Blair Cottrell" and celebrated Donald Trump's victory as President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election, as well as donating to the UPF and threatening a man from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia over criticism of the organisation in 2016. Cottrell had distanced himself from Tarrant and denounced his attacks, stating he didn't know him. He conceded it was possible that a UPF member did meet him at one point. Tarrant was also offered to join the Lads Society, a fight club also led by Cottrell, but declined. [18] [19] [20]
In August 2018, News Corp news outlet Sky News Australia was criticised for providing a platform to Cottrell in a one-on-one discussion about immigration. Sky News reporter Laura Jayes took offence at his appearance on the program due to the fact that he has expressed admiration for Hitler and claimed to have manipulated women "using violence and terror". [2] Political editor of Sky News David Speers was also critical of Cottrell's appearance on the show. Sky News commentator and former Labor Party minister Craig Emerson resigned in protest after the interview was broadcast, saying that the decision to give Cottrell a platform on Sky was "another step in a journey to normalising racism & bigotry in our country". Cottrell subsequently tweeted about Jayes: "I might as well have raped @ljayes on the air, not only would she have been happier with that but the reaction would've been the same." Activist groups called on advertisers to pull advertising campaigns off Sky News. [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
During the COVID-19 pandemic Cottrell spread anti-vaccine misinformation. [26] [27]
In 2012, Cottrell served four months in Port Phillip Prison after being convicted of stalking his ex-girlfriend and her new partner, and of arson after attempting to burn down the man's house. In December 2013 he was fined $1,000 and sentenced to seven days in jail by a County Court judge for aggravated burglary, property damage, arson, testosterone trafficking, possessing a controlled weapon and breaching court orders. [28] [29] [30] [15]
The Australia First Party (AFP), officially known as the Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated, is an Australian nationalist political party founded in 1996 by Graeme Campbell, a former member of the Australian Labor Party. The policies of the party have been described as nationalist, anti-multicultural and economically protectionist, advocating for strict immigration controls, the prioritization of Australian citizens in employment, and the promotion of Australian culture and values. The party's logo includes the Southern Cross of the Eureka Flag.
Kyle Chapman is a New Zealand far-right political activist and the former national director of the New Zealand National Front (NZNF), a white nationalist political party with a deep hate for Māori and Pasifika New Zealanders that worked to eliminate Māori and 'black people'. He has stood unsuccessfully three times for the Christchurch mayoralty: first for the NZNF (2004); then for the National Democrats Party (2007); and then for the Resistance Party (2013).
Sky News Australia is an Australian conservative news channel owned by News Corp Australia. Originally launched on 19 February 1996, it broadcasts rolling news coverage throughout the day, while its prime time lineup is dedicated to opinion-based programs featuring a line-up of conservative commentators.
Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies. It can be motivated by Ultranationalism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-semitism, anti-government sentiment, patriot movements, sovereign citizen beliefs, and occasionally, it can be motivated by opposition to abortion, and homophobia. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe and Russia.
The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 is an Act of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia, that makes behaviour that incites or encourages hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule against another person or group of people, because of their race or religion, unlawful in Victoria. The Act was passed during the premiership of Steve Bracks and went into effect on 1 January 2002.
Adam Graham Giles is an Australian former politician and former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2013–2016) as well as the former leader of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament. Giles is the first Indigenous Australian to serve as a head of government in Australia.
Islamophobia in Australia is highly speculative and affective distrust and hostility towards Muslims, Islam, and those perceived as following the religion. This social aversion and bias is often facilitated and perpetuated in the media through the stereotyping of Muslims as violent and uncivilised. Various Australian politicians and political commentators have capitalised on these negative stereotypes and this has contributed to the marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion of the Muslim community.
The United Patriots Front (UPF) was an Australian far-right extremist group that opposed immigration, multiculturalism and the religion of Islam. Formed in 2015, the group has been largely dormant since their Facebook page was deleted following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.
Sleeping Giants is a social media activism organization aiming to pressure companies into removing advertisements from several conservative news outlets by publicly accusing them of malpractices such as misinformation and hate speech. The campaign started in November 2016, shortly after Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States presidential election, with the launch of a Twitter account aiming to boycott Breitbart News. The campaign has sections in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France and Germany.
Martin Michael Sellner is an Austrian far-right political activist, and leader of the Identitarian Movement of Austria, which he cofounded in 2012. He is considered to be a key figure in the Neue Rechte in the German-speaking countries. He is also deemed to be part of the alt-right movement.
Antipodean Resistance (AR) is an Australian neo-Nazi hate group. The group, formed in October 2016, uses the slogan "We're the Hitlers you've been waiting for" and makes use of Nazi symbols such as the swastika and the Nazi salute. AR's logo features the Black Sun and Totenkopf with an Akubra hat, a laurel wreath and a swastika.
William Fraser Anning is an Australian former politician who was a senator for Queensland from November 2017 to June 2019. Anning is known for holding far-right, nativist, and anti-Muslim views, and has been criticised for his use of the Nazi euphemism for the Holocaust, when he proposed a plebiscite to be the "Final Solution" to "the immigration problem" in his maiden speech. Anning also generated controversy for his statements shortly after the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, in which he blamed the attacks on "the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate".
The True Blue Crew (TBC) is an Australian far-right extremist group. Members and supporters have been linked to right-wing terrorism and vigilantism, and members have been arrested with weapons and on terrorism-related charges. Experts who have studied the group say it appears to be "committed to violence".
Neil Erikson is an Australian far-right extremist and self-proclaimed neo-Nazi.
Fraser Anning's Conservative National Party, also known as the Conservative National Party or simply the Conservative Nationals, was a national-conservative political party in Australia founded by Fraser Anning in April 2019, when he was a senator for Queensland. Anning had previously been a senator for One Nation and Katter's Australian Party, and sat as an independent before founding the new party. The party contested the 2019 federal election, but failed to win a seat.
The Lads Society is an Australian far-right, white nationalist, Islamophobic extremist group founded by several former members of the United Patriots Front (UPF) in late 2017. It established club houses in Sydney and Melbourne. The Lads Society came to national prominence after it staged a rally in St Kilda, Victoria, targeting the local African Australian community. Attendees were seen making the Nazi salute and one was photographed wearing an SS helmet.
Far-right politics in Australia describes authoritarian ideologies, including fascism and White supremacy as they manifest in Australia.
The Singapore mosque attacks plot was a plan by a far-right extremist to commit two Islamophobic terrorist attacks at two Singaporean mosques on 15 March 2021, the 2-year anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings. The plot was uncovered in late November 2020 by the Internal Security Department, who arrested a 16-year-old Indian Protestant youth under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
Thomas Sewell is a New Zealand-born Australian neo-Nazi and convicted criminal. He is the leader of the National Socialist Network, the European Australian Movement and founder of the Lads Society. The groups led by Sewell focus on promoting White supremacy and far-right activism in Australia. He is known for associating with other prominent neo-Nazis and for controversial public stunts.
Far-right terrorism in Australia refers to far-right-ideologically influenced terrorism on Australian soil. Far-right extremist groups have existed in Australia since the early 20th century, however the intensity of terrorist activities have oscillated until the present time. A surge of neo-Nazism based terrorism occurred in Australia during the 1960s and the 1970s, carried out primarily by members of the Ustaše organisation. However in the 21st century, a rise in jihadism, the White genocide conspiracy theory, and after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have fuelled far-right terrorism in Australia. Both the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are responsible for responding to far-right terrorist threats in Australia.
Sky News has sparked outcry in Australia after it broadcast an interview with Blair Cottrell, a far-right extremist who has expressed his admiration for Hitler.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)