Collating the recent escalation of fascist state fuckery in Australia

As the shattering of the comfortable illusion of Western democracy enters its Epstein-drenched speedrunning phase, a number of disturbing developments in Australia have emerged that, when viewed collectively, reveal a pattern: a slide into authoritarianism at the hands of the Australian government, state governments, and their parasitic, supremacist leash holders. 

Without attempting to be definitive, this article exists to collate pieces of the puzzle that risk being lost in the maelstrom of a diarrhetic corporate media machine, presently working overtime to re-centre racist conversations around immigration, algorithmic distraction fluff, and hawkish op-eds about why the West needs to bomb all of Israel’s neighbours into oblivion. 

Consider this a dot joining exercise in a media landscape of wilful siloing and obfuscation.

Border security “antisemitism training” 
Multiple sources have revealed to The Shot that the Department of Home Affairs is making visa officers undergo “antisemitism training”. One of these sources was explicit in the intent: “Not anti-racism. Not unconscious bias. Antisemitism training”. 

As is obvious two years into a mass global uprising against Israel’s genocide, “antisemitism” training is being used here as a cudgel to quash lawful, moral dissent against this atrocity. 

It would be naive not to situate this development at Home Affairs in the context of the increasingly draconian approach to US border control, which is routinely seeing pro-Palestine individuals and leftists (and even Drew Pavlou, for presumably funnier reasons) denied entry based on their social media profiles or online advocacy.

Federal Police raid Canberra bar for displaying anti-fascist art
On February 18, 2026, Dissent Bar in Canberra was visited by the Australian Federal Police. The bar was shut down for a few hours prior to a gig, which was ultimately cancelled. The travelling Melbourne band, Kisses, pivoted and played a house party instead, proving yet again that rock ‘n’ roll cannot be killed.

The bar’s manager, Dave Howe, told me an anonymous complaint about his satirical anti-fascist art adorning the walls was the impetus for the AFP visit. The police ordered the below pictures removed. 

Howe says the AFP cited the federal Labor government’s controversial new “hate speech laws” as the grounds for the visit. “If this is the way the law has been set up, to allow an anonymous complaint to allow the police to act in this way, to achieve some kind of impact on the businesses and people that express views offensive to Zionists, then we can judge for ourselves who the law was designed to protect and who the law was designed to punish.”

“It’s pretty easy to look at the world these days and look at police action in so-called free democracies and think, ‘Oh, that could never happen here’. Well, we’ve got police beating protestors to protect the travelling head of a Zionist state, and they’re taking posters down based on an anonymous complaint thinking it will offend somebody. It seems unreal. It seems like we are marching slowly but surely into an authoritarian regime.”

Howe has since put the art back up. Our interview is here.

NSW Police brutality against anti-genocide protestors
As Isaac Herzog, the Israeli President cited by the international courts for inciting genocide, toured Australia as an official guest of the Albanese government, he was met with mass demonstrations in the streets. These displays of anti-fascist, anti-genocide dissent were peaceful affairs everywhere except Sydney, where, under guidance from Chris Minns and his authoritarian anti-protest laws, numerous people were violently assaulted by police. 

Much has been written about this already, including by us. For documentary video evidence about what really happened at these rallies, please check out our footage below:

Secret government contracts with genocide- and Epstein- linked company Palantir
If the looming corporate panopticon rolled out by the Western establishment has a technological nexus point, it is Palantir.

The Silicon Valley company’s software has been used to deal out mass death in Gaza, helping the IDF locate and murder Palestinians guilty of being Palestinian in Palestine. ICE also uses Palantir to round up brown people, as witnessed most recently in Minnesota, under the cover story of an “illegal immigrant” crackdown. If you’re pop-culture poisoned and need a metaphor to understand things, Palantir is the Sentinel program and anyone that doesn’t like fascism is an X-Men or unaffiliated mutant. 

A Bloomberg article from January 2024 ties the company directly to the highest levels of Israeli power structures: “Last year Palantir unveiled its AIP, or Artificial Intelligence Platform, which can serve as an aid in battlefield intelligence and decision-making, including analyzing enemy targets and proposing battle plans. In an analyst call in November, the company said Israel is using its new Palantir Government Web Services.

“The Denver-based firm co-founded by Karp and billionaire Peter Thiel is holding a board meeting in Tel Aviv for the first time, in a gesture of solidarity with Israel as it enters its fourth month of war. The pair met with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and families of hostages being held in Gaza during their visit.”

In Australia, the Albanese government’s Defence Department has signed new multi-million dollar deals with the dystopic nightmare-fuel corporation. Greens Senator David Shoebridge says, “Australia’s secretive defence department just gave Palantir, a company linked to enabling genocide and mass deportations, its biggest contract ever. Palantir’s AI has been linked to lethal surveillance in Gaza, contributing to tens of thousands of civilian deaths. Now our Defence Department is spending millions on it.”

“Defence has now spent over $26 million on Palantir since 2013. Add to that Coles, Westpac, Rio Tinto and the Future Fund’s $100 million investment in Palantir, and Australian money is flooding into this exploitative and dangerous company.”

“We are embedding a Trump linked company owned by billionaires that loathe democracy into our most sensitive defence systems.”     

It is worth noting, also, that Switzerland recently rejected Palantir’s advances, not because the software didn’t work, but because they felt it represented a grave security risk and that the nation would lose sovereignty over its own personal data. 

Immigrant crime data being shared with the US Epstein regime
As reported in The Conversation, Trumpian racism is spreading into the administrative arms of allies of the American empire. 

“US embassies in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and several Western European nations were instructed to collect and transmit migrant-related crime data in these countries to Washington.” The co-authored piece asserts that, “This request is unprecedented and extremely harmful. First, it is embedding the Trump administration’s criminalisation and mass deportation of migrants into its diplomatic relations with other countries. Second, the Trump administration’s directive is perpetuating a false narrative that migrants are to blame for any perceived increase in crime rates.”

NSW Police trial drone surveillance
A six-month trial has begun in which Sydney-based police will remotely pilot drones above the NSW township of Moree, 600km away. 

“This is about keeping the community safe and tackling crime, it has nothing to do with surveillance,” said an unconvincing NSW Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley. “We will not be recording flights when they are up in the air unless they are responding to a particular incident that is a crime… It’s not going to be flying around and looking into people’s backyards. This is not about surveillance, it is about responding to crime and making sure we take prompt action.”

Frankly, that’s too much defensiveness around the obvious implications of the encroaching corporate surveillance state for it to be even remotely convincing. The same drones that flew over Gaza are now flying across besieged American cities, and now, a tiny town in remote NSW. This will spread further.

Refugees being forcibly removed from the Australian community
Mirroring escalations in the United States, Ogy Simic of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre told The Shot in December that Australia’s dehumanising approach to refugees is somehow becoming even worse under the Albanese government.  

“We’ve now started ripping people out of the community under a multi-billion dollar deal that we know absolutely nothing about. The government has remained tight-lipped about it and won’t divulge details. But we are now ripping people out of our community, sometimes in the middle of the night, so scenes probably similar to what you’re seeing in the US with ICE, and sending people to Nauru.

“This is a wild escalation. As a country we have not had this before, where we are taking people who are part of our community and sending them to a place like Nauru.”  

Zionist’s overseeing a re-engineering of our school curriculum 
Jillian Segal and David Gonski are presently overseeing a 12 month inquiry into how to impose “antisemitism education” on Australian school curriculums. You don’t need to be Hercule Poirot to work out the true intention of this one. Frankly, this should terrify anyone with a school age child that doesn’t want them indoctrinated into a normalised relationship with Israeli depravity. 

It is well established that Segal has ignored violent racism from Advance (which is financially supported by her family trust), and local Nazis, to focus on the antisemitic horrors of watermelons and wanting an end to genocide. But if you’re thinking, “Gonski’s alright, I know that name”, allow us to quash that naive hope: in this interview with The Jewish Independent in 2017, he said: “I think it is amazing what the Israelis have achieved. I take my hat off to them. I have seen the fragility of Israel’s location, of the fragility of access to resources such as oil… and they solve problems. The Israelis have instinct and intellect; two things that I think are very important. 

“I absolutely believe in the state of Israel continuing. I don’t have a great want to go and live there myself. But I’ll fight for the right of people to do so.”

The below press release says it all. Public education advocates have the fight of their lifetimes looming. 

Police finger-printing Chris Minns Hitler posters

The sight of an overworked NSW Police flanked by forensic units fingerprinting, bagging and tagging posters featuring NSW Premier Chris Minns sporting a Hitler-style moustache in Sydney must have filled taxpayers with confidence. 

The Arts Law Centre of Australia CEO Louise Buckingham has called out the targeting of ‘peaceful artworks’ by law enforcement, citing the impact on artists and blaming lawmakers who have left society confused and fearful of new legislation.

The poster crime scene is a textbook example of the ideological overreach currently driving our leaders, having a profound impact on social cohesion and the public perception of freedom. Constitutional law expert Professor Anne Twomey spoke before a NSW parliamentary enquiry, saying she was “concerned at the proliferation of laws at both the state and federal level restricting speech”.

Israeli weapons contracts
The axiom of “fool me twice, shame on me” cannot be applied to the Albanese government when it comes to its relationship with Israel. Australia maintains economic, diplomatic and military normalcy with the state of Israel, including the two-way flow of military hardware, which has continued unabated throughout the UN-declared Gaza genocide. 

Canberra has maintained warm ties with Tel Aviv throughout this livestreamed genocide, including a substantial $917 million contract with Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems, the maintenance of pre-existing weapons permits, the supply of F-35 components used in offensive aerial missions in Gaza, and an additional weapons contract with Elbit for $19.8 million signed as late as September 2025. None of this is pretty.

If the targeted killing of Australian Zomi Frankcom wasn’t enough to reconsider, or the tens-and-thousands of confirmed murdered women and children in Gaza are not cause for more than Penny Wong’s concern, Australian made heat treated plate steel and warplane components still steadily flow into Israel via military supply chains, and our own military, intelligence and police still receive Israeli equipment and training.

The Segal doctrine of cutting university funding for “antisemitism”

The same Antisemitism Education Taskforce that is being sent into our primary and secondary school system is also set to review university funding. The Segal doctrine calls to cancel funding to universities that allow “antisemitism”, and to screen students and immigrants who may display anti-Jewish sentiment. The crux, of course, is that the IHRA definition of antisemitism will be used, which labels criticism of Israel and its depraved, racist, supremacist baby-murdering as “antisemitic”.

The capturing of universities and the academic class is one of the key preludes along the slide into authoritarianism. As students and academics are marginalised by a powerful envoy and her taskforce, they will become increasingly at odds with the harsh rules and restrictions placed on them: a disaster for the social cohesion Albanese routinely and disingenuously spruiks.  

AUKUS
Retired Rear Admiral Philip Mathias has described the AUKUS submarine program as “shambolic,” “parlous,” and “no longer fit for purpose”. A 2026 US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report is presently searching for alternatives that include not delivering any Virginia-class submarines to Australia at all. 

These developments should be enough to definitively state that AUKUS is an omnishambles of the highest order. Regardless, the Albanese government, led by Defence Minister Richard Marles, has followed through with AUKUS, codifying Scomo’s abomination. Our country has committed, in a bipartisan fashion, to paying more than $368 billion for submarines the Americans are already flagging we may never receive. This is mafia style protection money paid to a violent, demented empire, and the China Hawks and Jesus freaks in the NineFax papers can’t get enough of it.  

Alcoa granted legal exemption to stripmine native forest for the US military
US-based mining company Alcoa has been granted a “temporary” legal exemption to continue clearing (strip mining) parts of the Northern Jarrah Forest, a unique native eucalypt forest in Western Australia, for gallium and bauxite mining to power the war machine.

Even though Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt announced that Alcoa must pay $39 million as part of an enforceable undertaking to remediate historical unauthorised land clearing, his government has granted Alcoa a license to continue the clearing under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

The consideration behind these actions in Canberra, and the circumvention of all environmental and federal requirements to do so, are motivated by the recent critical minerals deal Albanese made in the US last year. This is yet another arbitrary method of boxing off our mineral wealth and destroying our ecosystem against the national interest, couched in the flimsy excuse of national defence.

Writers Festival bullshit

When acclaimed Palestinian-Australian writer and academic Randa Abdel-Fattah was cancelled by the board of the Adelaide Writers Festival, it sent a shock through the Australian writers community, rippling through the wider national public debate. As the damage from the announcement was being assessed, and writers were cancelling in droves, it was revealed that a letter from South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas may have had a direct impact on the decision. In a statement describing actions attributed to Abdel-Fattah as “antisemitic and hateful at worst and deeply offensive and insulting at best,” the Premier told the board that he didn’t think the inclusion of the acclaimed writer and academic was “in the public interest”.

Local booksellers reported losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars in unsold books, authors lost appearance fees, book sales opportunities, networking, and publicity. While the embattled Malinauskas downplayed the economic impact, the losses to the writers, local businesses and the people of Adelaide were thought to be in the tens of millions.

Randa Abdel-Fattah has threatened defamation, accusing Malinauskas of going even further than his initial statement to imply that Abdel-Fattah was “an extremist terrorist sympathiser”. With the SA Premier refusing to yield, and the announcement of Abdel-Fattah on the program for the Sydney Writers Festival, will meddling premiers learn a lesson? Recent comments from NSW Premier Chris Minns calling Abdel-Fattah’s inclusion on the Newcastle Writers Festival “crazy”, might indicate this is not the case.

Queensland bans “from the river to the sea” chant
Queensland premier David Crisafulli is using new “hate speech” laws in parliament to ban the phrases “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”. The first phrase is a geographical assertion of freedom for all inside the boundaries of Palestine; the later is a call to link the struggle of Palestine with the global oppressed, uniting us all in an “uprising” or “shaking off” against fascist oppression – such as these laws, frankly.

Theo Nolan-Isles locked up for a tweet
Activist-welder Theo Nolan-Isles was arrested on January 20 by NSW Police for tweeting in jest at the Orwellian legislation passed by a majority of the Australian parliament, and is currently awaiting his fate in a NSW prison.

For a satirical social media post that expressed he would purchase a beer for anyone that “intentionally causes physical pain to any politician who voted Aye to the passage of the ‘Combating Antisemitism’ hate speech bill”, Theo is facing the serious charge of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, and encouraging the commission of crimes.

Climate protester arrests and draconian laws
The crackdown and arrest of Theo Nolan-Isles reflects a pattern of brutality and harsh treatment of climate protesters that has been front and centre in recent years. As bipartisan governments increasingly work to protect the interests of the mining tycoons, coinciding with reams of state and federal legislation impacting on Australian’s right to protest, we are seeing more conscientious Australians at odds with the law.

From the arrest ofViolet Coco, an activist sentenced to jail for 15 months for blocking traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for 28 minutes, to the rapid anti-protest laws that were rushed through because South Australia’s Minister for energy and mining Tom Koutsantonis’ speech was interrupted during a petrolatum industry expo, Australia is no longer a country that is free to protest peacefully without the harassment of law enforcement. 

New heavily armed NSW Police taskforce 
NSW Police and Counter-Terrorism Minister Yasmin Catley announced this week a new 250-strong special police taskforce armed with long rifles, set to patrol the streets of Sydney on a 24/7 basis. This is, of course, in addition to already increased police powers, beefed up security, bans on public assembly, and legislation restricting freedom of speech. The heavily armed unit would patrol high-risk areas, places of worship, major events, and mass gatherings such as protests and sporting events. 

Among the unrecognisable political landscape post-Bondi under the Minns Labor government, where social cohesion is the order of the day, the people of NSW will have to adapt to the presence of heavily clad and highly armed officers on their streets, roaming with impunity, “lowering the temperature”.

Domestic policing has transformed since the Australian people began protesting the actions of Israel. Public facing policing has only further deteriorated in the post-Bondi environment, in which a moment of national tragedy perpetrated by killers the country still knows little about has been used as a cudgel to strip rights for political purposes.

Wrapping up this fascistic mess
Australian discourse is wilfully slow on the uptake, our local authoritarians having been described as “centre-left” by the dumbest class of ahistorical TV pundits on the fucking planet for years now.

Presented in isolation, each of these incidents amounts to state and/or corporate overreach. Collectively, they paint an alarming pattern of the Australian establishment embracing fascist control over our bodies and minds. Our rights to protest, our ability to access an education free of supremacist indoctrination, and our freedom to express criticism of barbaric policies are all being deliberately squashed by an increasingly militarised, draconian, authoritarian ruling class.

The time has come to organise, to resist, to protect our humanity from the zombified forces of hatred and domination trickling through a nation heading ever further into the darkness. Consider joining militant unions like the MUA, progressive and uncowed political parties (which most definitely does not include the fucking Labor Party, ya numpties!), supporting uncompromising independent members of parliament, direct action and advocacy groups, and local community initiatives that strengthen our collective bonds. Support truth-telling indie media. Consume good art. Listen to loud punk rock. Stretch, breathe, dance, and love, and remember that this horror too will pass if enough of us decide to embrace our unique roles in tearing it all down.

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This article was written by Dave Milner and Joel Jenkins