The Australian English-Speaking Union has opened an internal investigation after its Victorian branch gave $2,000 to The National Observer, an online publication described as white nationalist. The grant application sought money for lapel microphones and website development. The ABC investigation also found that ESU Victoria holds more than $16 million in cash and assets, according to financial documents.
The publication has called for the “accelerated removal of non-citizens” and incentives for the permanent “departure” of some Australians with dual citizenship. One recent article asked: “Are White Australians being replaced? The media says it's a conspiracy theory, the data says otherwise”. The ABC said its investigation did not suggest that all ESU Victoria members share or support white nationalist views.
A grant under scrutiny
The ABC alerted the Australian English-Speaking Union to the grant, prompting the investigation. ESU Victoria said its application relied on The National Observer providing independent podcasts that promote Australian culture, heritage and language.
The National Observer publishes a weekly podcast hosted by its founder, who uses the name “John Lawson”. In November 2025, Lawson interviewed Eric Orwoll, founder of the US “whites only” enclave Return to the Land, about applying its ideas in Australia. Australian white nationalists have appeared on the podcast and aired racist and antisemitic views. Representatives of far-right European political parties have also discussed pro-nationalist politicking there.
During an episode with a campaigner for Germany's Alternative for Germany, or AfD, an Australian host said the publication aimed to “try and build a young elite who have these right-wing ideas” and hoped the movement could replicate the AfD's electoral success. That electoral ambition sits alongside the publication's calls for removal and departure; the grant paid for equipment and website development for the outlet.
ESU Victoria said: “While the content of the National Observer's podcasts are that organization's responsibility, we support the common law freedoms available to all Australians, including freedom of expression.” ESU Australia said it had opened an internal investigation and took the matter seriously. A spokesperson described the organisation as “non-partisan, non-political” and said it did not support donations to political organisations or groups that did not uphold its purpose and mission.
Shared addresses, separate entities
Company documents show the British Australian Community, or BAC, and ESU Victoria share a building in Ascot Vale, in Melbourne's inner north-west. ESU Victoria president Robert Furlan previously served as a BAC secretary. A post in a BAC social media group said all BAC members had automatically become associate members of ESU Victoria in 2016.
ESU Victoria said the BAC had historically been a corporate member, but the corporate membership and its associated benefits ceased to operate in 2016. The branch had earlier funded a BAC campaign opposing the renaming of places and monuments to recognise Indigenous heritage, and sponsored the BAC's annual “Britfest” event. ESU Victoria told the ABC it has no current financial relationship with the group.
The BAC says it exists to “promote and defend the interests of Anglo-Celtic Australians”. It has used white nationalist rhetoric and advocated remigration, which the report defines as deportation of people of non-European heritage. In a 2024 press release, it called itself “immigration patriots” and urged then-opposition leader Peter Dutton to initiate “the orderly remigration of recent arrivals wishing to return to their homelands”. It also proposed a government department to manage “mass negative migration”.
Who defines the mission
The global English-Speaking Union operates across 50 countries. British journalist Sir Evelyn Wrench founded it more than 100 years ago. ESU Victoria runs activities including poetry competitions and public-speaking practice for schoolchildren. Its website defines English-speaking people as people of the British Isles and their descendants who settled in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America.
Extremism researcher Josh Roose, from Deakin University, said the branch appeared to share “traditionalist pseudo-intellectual elements” of the far right or extreme right. He said its view of English-speaking peoples appeared narrowly limited to white countries. Roose warned that the grant risked crossing into political activism and called for further investigation.
He also urged the Australian government to review ESU Victoria's stated aims, mission and activities. “When a charity is being used and cloaked effectively in a certain language to allow it to use tax breaks ... at times to achieve a political purpose, then it's moved well beyond its remit,” he said. The internal investigation remains open; the source reports no grassroots or community-led response.