Australia First Movement was a proto-fascist movement which grew out of the Rational Association and the Victorian Socialist Party

Victorian Socialist Party

The Victorian Socialist Party was a socialist political party in Victoria, Australia in the early 20th century. The VSP was founded in 1906 in Melbourne, bringing together a number of older socialist groupings. A leading influence in the VSP's formation was the British trade unionist Tom Mann, who...

. Adela Pankhurst Walsh, of the famous suffragette

Suffragette

"Suffragette" is a term coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for members of the late 19th and early 20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...

 family was involved in it, along with W. J. Miles, Rhodes scholar Percy Stephensen, Xavier Herbert

Xavier Herbert

Xavier Herbert was an Australian writer best known for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel Poor Fellow My Country . He is considered one of the elder statesmen of Australian literature...

, as well as famous novelists Miles Franklin

Miles Franklin

Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin was an Australian writer and feminist who is best known for her novel My Brilliant Career, published in 1901...

 and Eleanor Dark

Eleanor Dark

Eleanor Dark was an Australian author whose novels included Prelude to Christopher and Return to Coolami , both winners of the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal for literature, and her best known work The Timeless Land .-Life and career:Eleanor Dark was born in Sydney...

. Its advocacy of independence from the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 attracted the support of the Catholic weekly, The Advocate as well as the Odinist

Odinism

Odinism is a type of Germanic Neopaganism.Odinism may also refer to:*Norse paganism** the cult of Odin- See also :*Odinist Fellowship*Odinic Rite*The Odin Brotherhood*Wotanism, a Völkisch / White Nationalist movement*Wodenism...

 Alexander Rud Mills

Alexander Rud Mills

Alexander Rud Mills was a prominent Australian Odinist, and one of the earliest proponents of the rebirth of Germanic Neopaganism in the 20th century. He was a published author, lecturer and Barrister. He founded the First Anglecyn Church of Odin in Melbourne in 1936...

. It was anti-semitic  and by 1938 was advocating a national socialist

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 corporate state , and a political alliance with the axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

 powers of Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 , Italy and Japan

Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...

. Compromised by direct links with Japan, the organisation was suppressed in 1942, with some members being interned.

Many of its members had come out of hard left backgrounds. For example, both Walsh http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120729b.htm?hilite=Pankhurst and Stephensen http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120084b.htm were former Communists.