Sydney Trains worker Cooper Stephens has been stood down as the agency investigates his involvement in the neo-Nazi rally that took place outside Sydney’s Parliament House last week.
Stephens was identified as one of the 60 men who dressed in all-black and stood outside Parliament’s Macquarie Street gates while holding a banner targeting “the Jewish lobby” and chanting antisemitic slogans.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Stephens is based in south-west Sydney and works as a train guard for Sydney Trains, and the government agency is said to be “very concerned with the matter” of his attendance at the rally.
“The employee’s role is frontline and his actions are not supported by Sydney Trains or Transport for NSW and are not in line with public sector values,” Sydney Trains said, per SMH.
“In the interim, Sydney Trains has directed the employee not to attend work while the matter is examined,” it added.
Stephens is one of multiple men who has been identified in the days since the rally.
Matthew Gruter — a South African national who is married to a fitness influencer and works for an engineering firm that has contracts with the NSW Government — was also found to have attended the rally, as well as tradesman Jack Eltis.
28-year-old Etlis stood at the front of the rally, and is believed to be the second-in-command of the National Socialist Network, which organised the protest and is headed by Thomas Sewell.
Alongside those names, SMH revealed in another report that the rally was attended by a manager of a regional Australia Post branch, as well as an IT worker and a young racecar driver.
It comes amid the continued fallout from the rally, which saw two MPs, Allegra Spender and Kellie Sloan, receive threatening messages after they condemned the gathering on social media.
Both politicians referred the messages — which included death threats — to NSW Police, who said investigations into the matter were ongoing.
Elsewhere, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday that he would support moves to restrict the use of face coverings and hate speech at protests, in line with NSW Premier Chris Minns’ plans to expand bans on “Nazi speech, Nazi behaviours on Sydney Streets”.
“If people are engaged in legitimate political activity, they shouldn’t be frightened of being identified,” Albanese said when asked about face masks at protests.
Lead images: Getty Images and X
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