Neo-Nazi Joel Davis charged with inciting hatred over ‘Abolish the Jewish lobby’ rally at NSW parliament

Prominent neo-Nazi Joel Davis has been charged with alleged hate speech following a protest by the National Socialist Network outside New South Wales parliament.

About 60 members of the now-disbanded group stood in formation on Macquarie Street on 8 November last year, allegedly holding a large banner that read: “Abolish the Jewish lobby.”

In a statement on Wednesday night, NSW police said following an investigation into the protest and two speeches allegedly made by participants, a 32-year-old man had been arrested at South Penrith house earlier that afternoon.

Davis was taken to Penrith police station where he was charged with publicly inciting hatred on the grounds of race and causing fear. He was granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre local court on 3 June.

“An investigation into this matter was undertaken by the security investigation unit, counter terrorist and special tactics command, who sought legal advice in relation to the public assembly and content of the speeches,” police said.

NSW police were criticised at the time of the rally for not opposing a “form 1” application by the organisers, after receiving legal advice that the banner did not meet the threshold for hate speech.

The premier, Chris Minns, and the police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, said they were unaware of the event until after it happened.

Documents released under freedom of information have revealed that senior police officers and members of the premier’s department’s security team were notified about the neo-Nazi event ahead of time.

In a supplementary answer to NSW budget estimates in March, Lanyon said a subsequent investigation of protesters “identified no offence”.

Wednesday’s charge comes after criticism of the police response to alleged antisemitic incidents by members of the Jewish community at the royal commission into antisemitism.

The co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, told the royal commission this week that the “wrong call” was made by police in allowing the November protest to go ahead.

Wertheim made similar comments to a NSW parliamentary inquiry into legislation expanding hate speech offences to include Nazi slogans, commissioned following the protest outside parliament.

“With every other [form 1] application where objections have been taken – and rightly so in most cases, in our view – the rationale has been expressed in terms of public safety considerations, not legality considerations.”