Extremist Riccardo Bosi: followers duped

Bosi has latched on to, and become a central figure in, the so-called “freedom movement”, which in 2020 and 2021 involved large anti-lockdown protests.

Bosi is a former soldier in the Australian Army, where he spent time as a special services soldier.

He left the army almost two decades ago, in 2004.

To become a political party a group needs to file with the Australian Electoral Commission its “constitution” and provide a list of at least 1,500 prospective “members”.

It takes generally takes around 12 weeks between an application being submitted and a party becoming registered, the AEC said.

The process must be completed before the election is called, when the “caretaker” period begins – which experts say must occur six weeks from now at the latest.

Bosi has filed nothing.

That’s despite donors being explicitly asked to give money “to help us fund the establishment of Australia One as a fully registered Australian political party”.

Australian Electoral Commission spokesman Evan Elkin-Smyth said it was highly unlikely AustraliaOne would now be able to become registered.

“The advertising period alone for prospective parties is 30 days, so they’re in a bit of strife time-wise,” he told The Klaxon.

“That’s if they put one in (an application) at all”.

Bosi and his “AustraliaOne Party” have refused to respond, despite repeated requests for comment over the past week.

Telephone calls, text messages and emails – including to each of the group’s alleged “nationwide branches” – have all gone unanswered.

Bosi’s website calls for donations for the “support of the AustraliaOne Party” and collects information from donors.

The site says that it collects that information to be “in accordance with Part XX of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918” and “all Federal funding and disclosure laws and regulations”.

“In order for us to receive your donation you must accurately and completely fill out your details so that we may issue you with a receipt,” the site says.

Remarkably, there are no electoral commission laws preventing an entity or person from falsely claiming to be a “political party”, or from using a fake “party” to then raise money under false pretences.

How much AustraliaOne has raised is not known, and given it’s not a political party it is not required to lodge disclosures with the AEC.

Bosi’s Linked-In social media profile shows he has had limited employment in recent years, suggesting he and his wife are being personally financially supported by donations to the party they have failed to register.

Terrorism

Multiple terrorism experts have warned there is a serious risk that volatile or troubled individuals may carry out attacks having been radicalised by the extreme rhetoric used by “influencers” in the anti-vaxx movement.

National intelligence agency ASIO has repeatedly warned of “far-right” extremism, saying it expects an attack to occur and that far-right extremism presents 50 per cent of its counter-terrorism work.

(Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks in which 51 people were murdered by a radicalised, “far-right” Australian terrorist.)

Much of Bosi’s public presence is via video clips posted to the internet.

Enjoying this article? Click here to support our important work

In one clip, reported by The West Australian last month, Bosi expressly threatens violence.

“I’m warning everybody now we’re going to hang former prime ministers, former Justices of the High Court of Australia,” he said.

“The first one is going to be the Prime Minister if he is (found) guilty. And then there’s a group of state premiers that all must swing because they are all guilty.”

In another clip he says “we’re going to begin to make Australia ungovernable”.

“We’re going to shut down the power, the water, the sewerage, the communications to every globalist and elitist enterprise.”

He even calls on foreigners to attack Australian interests.

“If our international friends want to help, you can do the same. Shut down every Australian business, every Australian industry, every Australian High Commission and every Australian Consulate,” he says.

Bosi video claiming Covid-19 vaccines contain “AIDS”. Source: Supplied

Bosi taking that route would present a stark contrast to the long-running claims he has made about running a major nationwide party with candidates running in every state.

His raising money – potentially substantial sums – under false pretences is particularly concerning given many of his followers are likely vulnerable or troubled.

Whether or not Bosi has managed to obtain 1500 prospective “members” is unknown.

The “Australia One Party” Facebook page has 46,000 followers, although the operator of the page has opted to keep that list from public view.

Bosi preaches views very closely aligned with conspiracy movement “QAnon”, which pushes nonsense theories such as the existence of a mythological “deep state” or “cabal” that operates an international child sex-trafficking and controls all mainstream media and government.

Security experts say much of the disinformation is spread, or otherwise encouraged, by adversaries such as China and Russia, whose aim is to sow division and undermine faith in the west’s institutions and political systems.