A former ‘Neighbours’ star, a former pro wrestler and a former gym owner walk into a club in Melbourne… it’s not a joke; it’s a conspiracist love-in. Tom Tanuki reports. ON 19 JUNE, at a packed Polish Club in Rowville, a former Neighbours star, a former pro wrestler and a former gym owner came together to hold a discussion about a few subjects of interest to the remnants of the post-2022 “freedom” movement. One of the themes was familiar territory: protecting children. As the “movement” dwindled in recent years, its messaging drifted away from mandates and vaccines to more conventionally far-Right conspiracist moral panics about “transgenderism” and drag story time. So, the pro wrestler Craig Cole spoke to those fears, rehashing the same theories about high school “LGBTQ+ indoctrination” that he’d been repeating in speeches for a couple of years. But the other topic of the day was novel for them. ‘STOP MASS IMMIGRATION’, read the flyer. It was footnoted by lines I’d expect to see in other places, perhaps ones further to the Right of the typical lockdown-era conspiracist event — ‘Globalism is Destroying Western Civilisation’ and ‘Diversity is not a Strength’. The event was convened and emceed by Matt Trihey, who runs a new group called National Workers Alliance (NWA). Trihey’s contribution to the dwindling weekend latter-day freedom rallies roaming Melbourne’s CBD was to provide it with a bulky mobile speaker system. His efforts earned him a speaker role at the rallies and, in time, the ability to pack out the Polish Club for this, the very first NWA meeting. Before any of his “freedom” movement efforts, Trihey had been a physical trainer for young neo-Nazis in the Lads Society, a predecessor group to the National Socialist Network (NSN). But when he was focusing on the freedom movement, Trihey used to pretend that didn’t happen – when asked – or that he didn’t know who NSN leader Thomas Sewell was. Tonight would prove to be different. The event was at capacity, with around 300 people reportedly there. They mostly pulled in mums and dads — the middle-aged folk boomers of the freedom movement’s remains. Some of these people are members of conspiracist, anti-government satellite community groups like My Place run by Darren Bergwerf, who was himself in attendance. Others were devoted followers of the speakers: the pro wrestler or the gym owner, perhaps, or Neighbours star Damien Richardson.
via indenendentaustralia: The night the cookers were handed over to neo-Nazis at the Polish Club
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