{"id":738656,"date":"2026-06-15T20:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738656\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T20:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:10:09","slug":"one-nation-branch-official-defended-hitler-youth-and-called-aboriginal-people-stone-age-in-racist-posts-one-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738656\/","title":{"rendered":"One Nation branch official defended Hitler Youth and called Aboriginal people \u2018stone age\u2019 in racist posts | One Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man who has defended the Hitler Youth organisation and used offensive and racist language about Aboriginal people and migrants is working as a policy development officer for One Nation in Queensland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia can reveal that John Drew, who claims he was kicked out of One Nation<\/a> more than 20 years ago for being \u201ctoo radical\u201d, says he has been a party branch official in Brisbane since late last year. This is despite One Nation claiming it has introduced a sophisticated new vetting tool \u2013 dubbed Operation Obsidian \u2013 that it applies to any person taking up a party role.<\/p>\n

On Monday Drew confirmed to Guardian Australia that he holds the role of \u201cpolicy development officer\u201d with the Ryan branch in Brisbane<\/a>. He would not say whether he had been elected or appointed to the position.<\/p>\n

Drew was previously the Queensland secretary for the far-right Australia First party and national coordinator for the Patriotic Youth League, which was active in the early 2000s and had links<\/a> to a US neo-Nazi organisation.<\/p>\n

His Facebook<\/a> account shows that he has repeatedly used deeply offensive and racist language about Aboriginal people, calling them \u201crapacious bludgers and grifters\u201d, \u201cghastly boongs\u201d and \u201cstone age people\u201d.<\/p>\n

In one post he said: \u201cIt has been estimated that at least fifty percent of aborigines are mentally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another post about the campaign for an Indigenous voice to parliament, he called the Olympian Cathy Freeman an \u201caboriginal flog\u201d and claimed that \u201ccountry people have had enough of rapacious aborigines\u201d.<\/p>\n

A 2007 profile of John Drew in Zoo Weekly<\/p>\n

Drew posted in 2022 that he was writing a film script based on historical events on North Stradbroke Island in which soldiers fought \u201cthe vile savages causing problems\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be an action movie which shows aborigines being shot and killed,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Dozens of other deeply offensive posts are found on Drew\u2019s Facebook page. It claims he is a \u201cradical activist with Pauline Hanson\u2019s One Nation\u201d and in March he said he was \u201cproud to be a One Nation branch official\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last December he claimed his position was \u201cthe recruitment secretary of my local party branch\u201d. He also attended a function linked to the Lilley branch with Senator Pauline Hanson in October.<\/p>\n

Drew claims to have had a long association with One Nation, saying he has believed in Hanson and her policies since the 1990s. He also volunteered for the election campaign of her media adviser, Richard Henderson, who ran unsuccessfully for the seat of South Brisbane at the 2024 Queensland state election.<\/p>\n

According to Drew, he handed out how-to-vote cards for Henderson in West End and in Highgate Hill at a booth \u201cinundated with young idealists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Drew was advising on the party\u2019s processing of membership applications on 3 June and gave an update on merchandise sales last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur membership processing staff at One Nation headquarters are very busy,\u201d he said. \u201cYour plastic membership card will eventually arrive in the mail so ensure that you enter correct address details when you join.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March and April he discussed the popularity of his branch, saying it had more than 200 members.<\/p>\n

One Nation has claimed it is using technology to screen candidates and officials to avoid the controversies surrounding extreme candidates that have long plagued the party.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia revealed last month<\/a> that the party had introduced a vetting tool for elected branch executive members called ONTRACE, while the party told Nine that it was deploying \u201csecret methods\u201d to undertake thorough character and background checks.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s new general manager, Kelvin Morton, said Operation Obsidian would apply to \u201chow we vet and assess candidates, employees, and anybody that takes up a role within One Nation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hanson told Nine\u2019s Inside Politics podcast this month that the party had shut down four branches amid concern that far-right members had infiltrated it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m being infiltrated by these extremists, so it\u2019s all the time happening with One Nation, they set us up all the time, and I\u2019ve really had enough of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But while Hanson distanced herself from the \u201cridiculous\u201d views of white nationalists, Drew has made it clear that he believes the country should never have abandoned the \u201cfabulous\u201d White Australia policy.<\/p>\n

In a 2023 post he said his holiday reading would be Keith Windschuttle\u2019s White Australia Policy, quoting Billy Hughes as saying: \u201cWe have the opportunity here to create a great, white, southern nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December he said: \u201cThe fabulous White Australia Policy was foolishly abandoned in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now we have failed multicultural government policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew has also posted countless racist comments directed at ethnic minorities, calling the Labor MP Sally Sitou a \u201csad ethnic lady\u201d who was seeking to justify mass migration, and labelling Senator Mehreen Faruqi a \u201cforeign nutter\u201d.<\/p>\n

He repeated Hanson\u2019s comment that Faruqi should \u201cpiss off back to Pakistan\u201d, which was found to be in breach<\/a> of the Racial Discrimination Act. Hanson is appealing against the finding.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Drew says that Faruqi can piss off to Pakistan where she actually belongs,\u201d he said. \u201cSue me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Drew claimed that Australia was \u201cbeing swamped\u201d by Chinese people and \u201cnon assimilating migrants\u201d, and referred to Muslims as \u201cIslamic scum\u201d. He has also posted about \u201cethnics defrauding the taxpayer\u201d through the national disability insurance scheme and called for \u201cIndians to go back to India\u201d.<\/p>\n

One of Drew\u2019s Facebook posts<\/p>\n

In one post he suggested a group of Sikhs were \u201cpongy\u201d, while on a Nigel Farage video he labelled Afghan migrants \u201cnonassimilating goat herders\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime for mass deportations,\u201d he wrote in April.<\/p>\n

In posts last year about cricket, Drew called Australia\u2019s victory evidence of white supremacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a white nation of 26 million people can beat a black nation of 1.1 billion look no further for proof of white supremacy,\u201d one post said. In another, which referred to the cricket World Cup, he said: \u201cIndian people must accept white supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also posted content that suggests he is enamoured with far-right parties in Europe, with particular praise reserved for Alternative for Germany, which has campaigned for a return to predominantly blood-based citizenship rights.<\/p>\n

He praised Berlin\u2019s \u201cfabulous Poliziei\u201d in a post in May showing police assaulting protesters at a pro-Palestinian rally, and on another post appeared to defend the Hitler Youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the way the Hitler Youth mainly encouraged young Germans to lead a healthier lifestyle by stressing outdoor activities,\u201d Drew wrote while commenting on a post about Farage in October.<\/p>\n

The original post<\/a> was by the UK Reform politician Darren Grimes, who was commenting on remarks made by the UK deputy prime minister, David Lammy, who accused Farage, the Reform leader, of having \u201cflirted with the Hitler Youth\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Australian Electoral Commission records, Drew ran for One Nation for the seat of Ryan in 2001 but claimed in a 2007 Zoo Weekly article that profiled \u201cNazis in Australia\u201d that he had been dumped for being too radical.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Nation dumped me because of my radical ideas,\u201d he said. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t endorse me for a seat, so I joined the more radical Australia First.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the article, Drew was described as an \u201cextremist\u201d and said he \u201cmost definitely\u201d believed that the white supremacy movement was growing in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also causing a thing called \u2018white flight\u2019, where white people actually leave ethnic-dominated areas to move to places like Brisbane where they [immigrants] are not in such large numbers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Drew\u2019s Facebook page repeats the notion of \u201cwhite flight\u201d in numerous posts, saying people were moving to Queensland to escape \u201clocal ethnic encroachment\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was also reportedly the Queensland organiser for the Patriotic Youth League, the white nationalist youth organisation affiliated with Australia First.<\/p>\n

After confirming his One Nation role to the Guardian, Drew hung up and would not answer any further questions. In a text message, he said: \u201cGo and annoy someone else. Better things to do\u201d and, \u201cBetter still find a sensible job.\u201d When asked if his role was elected or appointed, he said \u201cnone of your business so bugger off\u201d.<\/p>\n

One Nation declined to comment.<\/p>\n

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Indigenous Australians<\/a> can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for information and crisis support<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man who has defended the Hitler Youth organisation and used offensive and racist language about Aboriginal people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-738656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}