Archive/File: pub/places/australia/sydney/conference-disrupted-0395
Last-Modified: 1995/09/10
Source: The Jewish Western Bulletin, March 23, 1995, p. 2

Neo-Nazis disrupt Aussie conference
By Jeremy Jones
Sydney, Australia (JTA)

Participants at a government-sponsored conference here on
immigration and population trends were given a first-hand
view of this country's neo-Nazis in action.

Right-wing extremists disrupted sessions at the Bureau of
Immigration and Population Outlook Conference, hurling
anti-Jewish and anti-Asian invectives at various speakers.

One of the sessions at the conference, held in Adelaide, was a
debate on anti-racism legislation between a Jewish leader and
an Arabic community activist.

When Isi Leibler, president of the Executive Council of
Australian Jewry, delivered his paper on intolerance in
Australia, the national leader of an extremist group disrupted
the session, threatening Leibler with a prison sentence.

Michael Brander, head of the Neo-Nazi National Action,
shouted, "We will continue to fight for the white European
nature of Australia, we will fight for our country, we will
never stop and, Lsi Leibler, if you try to stop us, you will
be in prison yourself."

During the debate, Leibler said "anti-vilification" laws, now
in place in half of the Australian states, should be extended
to cover all Australians.

"It will act as a guide to police and prosecutors to act more
vigorously to pursue and punish perpetrators of racist acts
that are nowadays too frequently dismissed as
inconsequential," he said.

The day before, a session on Australian social cohesion was
interrupted by Jack King, who last year led an anti-Semitic
rally on behalf of Australians for Free Speech.

King said at the session that no "Jew or Asian" had ever made
a "useful contribution to Australia."

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