SURVIVALISTS GO WILD
Far-right ad for training camps targets ‘loyalists’ in Cairns
FAR RIGHT conspiracy theorists are targeting disillusioned Far Northerners online and attempting to lure them to “survivalist skill” training camps around Cairns.
In an advert posted to an online classified site recently, a man who went by the username “Greg” called on “all Australian nationalist, loyalist and patriots” to join his “lively group of independent-minded individuals in Cairns concerned for the direction our country and society is heading”.
“Come join us to discuss how to survive and thrive the next major crisis looming before us and take back the lost [sic] of our freedoms and reclaim our rights,” the advert read.
The Cairns Post contacted Greg and requested more specific information, however he accused all traditional media organisations of being “complicit in a vast conspiratorial network ... deliberately ignoring and obfuscating” facts.
“They have taken away our rights to bear arms and now to even speak our minds with racial discrimination hate speech laws,” he said.
The ad comes as controversy surrounds the import ban on the Adler lever-action shotgun.
The Adler A110 is currently banned amid concerns it violates Howard-era gun control laws, due to how rapidly the gun is able to fire.
On Friday, Justice Minister Michael Keenan announced a national gun amnesty to encourage gun owners to hand over thousands of the estimated 260,000 firearms on Australian streets.
Former One Nation candidate for Leichhardt and likely state candidate for Mulgrave Peter Rogers said he supported survivalist groups in principle.
“Everyone has a right to defend themselves,” said Mr Rogers, who owns six guns himself.
“I support it on a self-defence level, not as in a ‘let’s go out and kill someone’.
“It’s purely as a discipline and self defence.”
Far North Police Senior Constable Russell Parker said at face value, there was nothing illegal about survivalist training groups.
“We all have a right to free speech and people are within their right to attend meetings of groups,” he said. “But obviously ... they need to understand they have got to operate under the laws of the land.”