The positive influence of the British National Party downunder

Darrin Hodges, NSW Chairman for the Australian Protectionist Party writes about the growth of the APP and the influence of the BNP in Australia.

Heres something to keep the British Establishment and the Australian Establishment awake at night: An antipodean simile of the BNP. The Australian Protectionist Party (APP) has risen from the ashes of multi-decadinal nationalist political failure in Australia to become a prominent and viable alternative party for people disillusioned with the Establishment parties. In doing so, we’ll finally bring real democracy back to Australia as we smash the current two party system stranglehold.

I recently did an interview with Philip Dorling for The Canberra Times, an influential paper in our nation’s political heartland, that despite the usual media spin about “the extreme right wing”, put APP in a positive light and demonstrated the Establishment’s fear of the rise of a BNP-like party in Australia. The full article can be viewed on the Australia Identity Forum – “APP in the Canberra Times”.

The article starts off by running down Pauline Hanson, the leader of a previous non-Establishment party in Australia, stating that her biography sells for next to nothing at the local discount shop. He then talks to some Establishment figures who say that such a party could never possibly rise again, despite some misgivings of some others:

Speaking earlier this week following the merger of the Queensland Nationals and Liberals, senior members of the new Liberal National Party said it was
unlikely any far-right party would be able to repeat the brief success of the One Nation Party, which secured 22 per cent of the primary vote in the 1998 Queensland state-election and won 11 seats in the state Parliament.

Senator Ron Boswell, who was in the forefront of the National Party’s fight with One Nation, dismisssed suggestions by independent federal Member of
Parliament Bob Katter, who said that the Liberal-National merger was the perfect opportunity for a new right-wing party to poach conservative support in the bush.

“Tough times suit a right lurch” - Canberra Times, 02/08/08.

One Nation was very influential in Australian politics, so much so that when one looks at Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech in parliament, nearly all of her points were made into policy by the then Howard conservative government. While One Nation is now in decline, it has laid down some very important and indispensablefoundation stones that the APP intends to build upon.

The article continues on to talk about the foundation of APP including a mention of the ideological roots, being the historical Protectionist Party which formed the first federal government in this country (and introduced the White Australia Policy) with Sir Edmund Barton and Alfred Deakin as first and second Prime Ministers respectively:

Barton and Deakin would probably be spinning in their graves if they thought they had been roped in to provide philosophical cover for a party whose roots
are to be found in the various fascist and neo-Nazi factions that have dwelt on the edges of Australian Political life over the past 50 years.

“Tough times suit a right lurch” - Canberra Times, 02/08/08.

The actual truth is that Barton and Deakin were quite adamant racialists with a very confident sense of identity:

We are united in the resolve that this Commonwealth [ of Australia ] shall be established on the firm foundation of unity of race, so as to enable it to fulfil the promise of its founders.

Alfred Deakin.

I am running in the NSW government elections within the Sutherland Shire, or as Philip Dorling delicately puts it “the home of the Cronulla riots”.
My campaign is based around the idea that large unit developments will not only change the look of the Sutherland Shire, but will change the demographics and ultimately the identity of the area.
The Sutherland Shire is the birth-place of modern Australia, it is where Captain James Cook first made landfall in 1770 and I think it is important that we maintain the identity of those who discovered this country.

Philip Dorling suggests that my focus on environmental and community issues is “relativity sophisticated” and intimates that it is a result of influence from the BNP. The APP has looked toward the BNP for inspiration, after all I consider the BNP to be the most successful nationalist party within the Anglosphere and is therefore a good place to start.

Possibly the model of the British National Party is a more viable starting point than the precedents provided by earlier Australian far-right parties.

“Tough times suit a right lurch” - Canberra Times, 02/08/08.

The BNP have had major electoral success under the leadership of Nick Griffin and I believe that it was Nick Griffin who rescued the BNP from the murky depths of right-wing extremism (to use a media term) and thus saving British Nationalism and in the fullness of time, the British people.

The APP does not intend to slavishly copy the BNP, but we can attempt to emulate the BNP’s many successes in Australia. This is what the Australian Establishment fear and indeed, has expressed this fear recently. Senator Doug Cameron ( formerly head of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union ) said he feared the “rise of a far-right force akin to the British National Party” in Australia:

Mr Cameron confirmed his comments yesterday, saying he had been troubled by the gains the British National Party had made in recent elections.

“Far-right rise from migrant push: senator” - Sydney Morning Herald, 20/05/08

Even in regards to my own modest electoral campaign, the Establishment parties are cognisant of the APP’s potential:

Labor and Liberal sources in the Sutherland Shire are adamant the odds are stacked against him, but, as one Labor branch stalwart observed, “He’s got
quite a lot of publicity and some of it strikes a chord with the locals
here.”

“Tough times suit a right lurch” - Canberra Times, 02/08/08.

There are links slowly building between the APP and the BNP, an Australian APP member is travelling to Britain to participate in the BNP’s “Red,White and Blue” convention next weekend. This can only serve to strengthen ties between the two parties and reinvigorate the crimson thread of kinship and lead to a greater cross-flow of ideas and information that can be used to
best serve the people in our respective countries.

Darrin Hodges

NSW Chairman, Australian Protectionist Party.

Sydney, Australia – 07/08/2008.

Tags: Australian Protectionist Party