Australian charity holding A$16 million accused of funding white supremacist organisation, calls for federal review resurface

According to a disclosure by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) news verification unit, registered charity the English-Speaking Union Victoria (ESU Victoria) has been accused of providing a A$2,000 grant to a white supremacist online publication and having deep personnel and premises links with a far-right organisation that advocates race-based expulsion. The organisation holds more than A$16 million in cash and assets.

ABC's investigation began with The National Observer – a publication that promotes the 'white replacement' conspiracy theory in podcasts and articles and advocates 'accelerated removal of non-citizens'. One anonymous article in the publication, titled 'Australian Remigration – What It Would Look Like and How to Achieve It Tomorrow', calls for accelerating the removal of non-citizens and using financial incentives to encourage some Australian dual citizens to permanently 'leave'. Another article, titled 'Are Australian Whites Being Replaced? Media Says It's a Conspiracy Theory, Data Says Otherwise', seeks to refute the mainstream narrative.

The publication's founder hosts a weekly podcast under the pseudonym 'John Lawson'. In November 2025, Lawson interviewed Eric Orwoll, founder of the American 'whites-only' enclave organisation Return to the Land, discussing how to transplant its ideas to Australia. Australian local white supremacists have also appeared as guests on the podcast, spreading racist and antisemitic remarks. In one episode, an activist from Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) shared 'pro-nationalist' political experience, while the Australian host acknowledged that the publication's purpose was 'to try to build a group of young elites with these right-wing ideas', hoping to replicate AfD's electoral success.

In a statement to ABC, ESU Victoria defended the grant, saying the application materials described the publication as an 'independent podcast promoting Australian culture, heritage and language', with funds used to purchase lapel microphones and develop a website. The statement also cited 'freedom of speech' as justification.

However, this defence is at odds with the position of its parent body, ESU Australia. A spokesperson for the parent body told ABC that the organisation 'does not engage in political advocacy, nor does it support donations to political organisations or any organisation that does not align with ESU's purpose and mission', and that the parent body has initiated an internal investigation into the Victorian branch.

ESU Victoria positions itself as a non-political organisation dedicated to promoting cooperation among English-speaking peoples, with its Victorian branch running activities including rhyming poetry competitions and helping schoolchildren practise public speaking. However, ABC's investigation found that the organisation shares a building in Ascot Vale, in Melbourne's inner northwest, with the British Australian Community (BAC), which claims to represent the interests of 'Anglo-Celtic Australians'.

Company records show that ESU Victoria's current president, Robert Furlan, previously served as BAC's secretary. According to a post in a BAC group on social media, since 2016 all BAC members have automatically become associate members of ESU Victoria. ESU Victoria told ABC that BAC was historically a corporate member, but that the relevant membership and benefits have ceased to operate since 2016, and stated that it has 'no current financial relationship' with BAC.

However, ESU Victoria has previously funded BAC's activities opposing the renaming of places and monuments in honour of Indigenous heritage, and has sponsored BAC's annual event 'Britfest'.

BAC's remarks have gone well beyond the scope of cultural activities. In a 2024 press release, the organisation styled itself 'patriots for immigration' and called on then-opposition leader Peter Dutton to 'initiate the orderly remigration of recent arrivals who wish to return to their homelands', explicitly demanding the establishment of 'immigration policies designed to reduce ethnic diversity' and a government department responsible for 'large-scale negative migration'. The organisation has also discussed the topic of 'population replacement' on social media, and described Australian Anglo-Celts as being 'in peril' under the 'threat' of 'large-scale indiscriminate immigration'.

BAC's current secretary, Dr Frank Salter, was one of the co-founders of the 1970s organisation 'National Alliance of Australia', which was reported at the time as an anti-immigration outfit focused on recruiting young people. Salter subsequently entered academia and has written extensively on ethnicity, genetics and 'mass immigration'. ESU Victoria in 2023 provided funding for a publication by Salter titled 'Collected Essays on the National Question'. Salter's work has been promoted via Amazon affiliate links on the alt-right website The Noticer, which has also published Salter's views on racial matters in his capacity as a BAC representative.

ABC explicitly states that it is not suggesting that all ESU Victoria members identify with or support white supremacist views. As to whether Salter is currently a member of ESU Victoria, ABC reported that this remains unclear, and that Salter did not respond to questions from ABC NEWS Verify.

ESU Victoria's website defines 'English-speaking peoples' as 'the peoples of the British Isles and their descendants, settled in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States'. Dr Josh Roose, an extremism researcher at Deakin University, told ABC that the organisation appears to overlap with certain 'traditionalist pseudo-intellectual elements' of the far right or extreme right, and that the grant to The National Observer has crossed the line into 'political activism'.

'The National Observer is not run by well-known, reputable academic or journalistic teams – these are primarily activists,' Roose said. 'When you provide a platform for white supremacists… the line between acceptable and unacceptable becomes very, very blurred, and that clearly warrants further investigation.'

Roose has called on the Australian federal government to conduct a comprehensive review of ESU Victoria, examining the gap between its stated purpose and mission and its actual activities.

'Charities exist to serve the greater good, and that is ultimately the purpose for which they are defined,' Roose said. 'When a charity, cloaked in the legitimate guise of a particular language and enjoying tax exemptions as a result… and in some cases being used to achieve a political purpose, has gone well beyond its remit.'