British man’s Australian visa cancelled after being charged with displaying Nazi symbols | Australian immigration and asylum
The federal government has canceled the visa of a British man accused of displaying banned Nazi symbols after police seized swords bearing a “swastika symbol” at his home in Queensland last month.
federal police announced Earlier this month the 43-year-old UK national, who lives in Queensland, was charged with three counts of displaying banned Nazi symbols and one count of using a transport service to threaten, harass or cause an offence.
AFP claimed in a statement on December 8 that the man used the social media platform
In the statement, police claimed that during a search of a house in Caboolture on November 21 they found “a number of weapons, including swords, axes and knives bearing the swastika symbol”.
The AFP said at the time: “AFP alleged the man posted content in breach of Commonwealth law on a number of occasions between 10 October 2025 and 5 November 2025. It is alleged that X blocked the main account the man was using, which led to him creating a second account with a similar name to continue posting offensive, harmful and targeted content.”
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Home secretary Tony Burke confirmed on Wednesday that the man’s visa had been canceled and the government wanted him deported.
Speaking to the ABC, Burke said: “I said a while ago that when it comes to freedom of expression, I have no time for hatred about canceling visas. If you come to Australia with a visa, you are here as a guest.”
“Almost everyone who gets a visa in our country is a good guest and a welcome guest. But if someone comes here for hate purposes, he can leave. That’s what we do.”
Burke said the proposed new hate speech law would increase his powers to cancel such visas, adding: “My view is that inciting hatred should be enough… We should be able to cancel visas on that basis alone.”
The visa revocation comes after Burke last month revoked the visa of South African Matthew Gruter after he attended a neo-Nazi National Socialist Network rally outside the New South Wales parliament in November. At the time, Burke accused NSN members of “trying to disguise their bigotry under the guise of patriotism.” Gruter later left Australia voluntarily after being detained on immigration grounds and facing deportation.
On Tuesday, Burke said he wanted to shut down Islamist and far-right extremists like the NSN with a new regime for listing hate groups that would operate in much the same way as the terrorism listing scheme.
