I realise that all the screenshots of evidence make this article look longer than it is, so I’ve written some bullet points, but the whole article is worth reading (if you’re willing to handle content mentioned in the warnings). Breaking federal laws, offering lawyers to neo-Nazis, getting into tiffs with said neo-Nazis when they turn out to be misogynist turds, it’s a ride.
Bullet-points
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Louise recently ran as a candidate in the Victorian council elections, contesting the Melaleuca ward in the City of Kingston, in Melbourne’s South-East. [and came in second place]
- She also ran the ‘Victoria Says No’ Twitter account
- And has a Telegram account very clearly linked to that Twitter account and herself (used photos of herself as the avatar), which, among other account names, included ‘Batwaff3n’ (a reference to the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the Nazi Schutzstaffel). She constantly posted anti-Indigenous and antisemitic content, including while at work and about work as a Liberal Party member.
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One of this account’s contributions is the creation of racist & antisemitic wildlife-themed Telegram sticker packs. These Telegram stickers are all in breach of the Australian Federal government’s anti-swastika legislation.
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[…] this account made over 22,000 comments in the Telegram chat of Brisbane-based neo-Nazi Daniel Seery-Walker. They also commented in other chats belonging to Young Liberal turned neo-Nazi Stefan Eracleous and Proud Boy Tim Wilms. In June 2024, this account abruptly stops posting – only for a new account called Batwoman to take its place. As Batwoman, they explain that they lost access to their old account. This Batwoman account has posted nearly 3000 comments in Daniel Walker’s chat since June.
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In 2022, Louise made a chaotic appearance on the podcast of American neo-Nazi Jovi Val as ‘Batwaffen’ to discuss her involvement in organising anti-Andrews ‘Kill The Bill’ rallies using the Dan Andrews Must Go Facebook group. When some trolls joined the call and accused her of a romantic entanglement with fellow ex Young Liberal-turned-NSN “treasurer” Stefan Eracleous, she explained that she didn’t have time to discuss such matters because she was doing the podcast from her desk at work.
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Louise made a number of references to working on material directly for Advance Australia, the conservative propaganda outfit – though at times her content was knocked back for being too edgy.
- At one point she rants about volunteers not showing up for the No campaign: “I’ve got fucking Peter duttons chief of staff manning one of my booths tomorrow morning even cos I had a meltdown over all the volunteers pulling out” […] “where are all these tough white men huh” […] “they’re too busy looking at themselves in the mirror at the gym no doubt”. Later, “Shouldve gotten those Nazis out on my booths”. These comments are referring to the NSN, those weirdos who keep getting on the telly.
- After joining an NSN chat, offering to make banners and advising them legally on the symbols ban, Moira Deeming’s ill-fated Let Women Speak rally happened. Louise Black said the Nazi salute “wasn’t the best pr move”, leading NSN members to reply with aggressively misogynistic remarks, assert she had an intellectual disability and then claim they were protecting women. For over an hour.
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[A few months later] we found Louise complaining about the NSN in a [Melbourne] Proud Boys chat
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Still, Louise Black’s relationship with the organisation had sufficiently thawed by the time anti-fascist influencer Tom Tanuki had produced a video highlighting the National Socialist Network’s internal paedophile problems that she was willing to put NSN SA leader Cameron Brodie-Hall into contact with a KC specialising in defamation.
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We find it telling that, while Louise Black has been shut out of a number of extremist groups—due to her habit of spitting the dummy when her unsolicited advice is ignored—the one organisation which hasn’t seen fit to show her the door is the Victorian Liberal Party.
Neo-Nazism, while dangerous, is a farce. We don’t have a Great War full of bitter returned soldiers like the original wave of fascists did. They’ve generally doubled down on recruiting alienated teens (now more than ever doing this through video games and edgy forums), so most of their recruits would be sent to the camps if their idol were in charge, discarded quicker than Röhm. And the few they get who aren’t alienated teens are tattood-up prisoners in race gangs. Not exactly their ideal man.