The Queensland government has cancelled plans for an MP to meet the former leader of a far-right “patriots” group, who encouraged a mob to surround the Rockhampton home of an Indigenous teenager.
Torin O’Brien had been invited to sit down “with police and other stakeholders” by Rockhampton MP Barry O’Rourke after he led a group of 30 people who swarmed the teenager’s home on Sunday.
O’Rourke and the police minister, Mark Ryan, initially defended the meeting, despite revelations by Guardian Australia about O’Brien’s previous affiliation with the Patriots Defence League, a group that regularly posted offensive anti-Islam content.
On Wednesday, O’Rourke said the sit-down would no longer go ahead.
The MP had earlier said he’d invited O’Brien to attend a meeting with police “in an attempt to de-escalate this situation and make sure he understands the significant dangers involved in this behaviour”.
“He did not confirm his attendance and instead appears to be continuing to try to stir up vigilante behaviour, which is a risk to our community,” O’Rourke told Guardian Australia.
“As such, the meeting will not be going ahead and I will continue to support the police in their efforts to prevent this situation turning into a tragedy.”
Earlier this week, Facebook banned O’Brien for breaching community standards, after he posted the names and photographs of two Aboriginal teenagers who he believed had committed criminal activity and encouraged locals to attend their homes.
Private messages on other platforms, leaked to Guardian Australia, show O’Brien has been planning another protest event for Wednesday night.
The event was to involve convoys of cars driving in laps around certain Rockhampton “hotspots”, with O’Brien claiming in other social media posts that he had “an open line with the cops”.
Guardian Australia asked the Queensland police service whether O’Brien did have an “open line” to officers, and whether police had given any approval or sign-off for a road patrol to take place.
Capricornia district Supt Glen Pointing said police were “aware of the emergent claims on social media and strategies remain in place to monitor and respond to the current situation”.
They did not say whether they had had ongoing contact with O’Brien.
Earlier on Wednesday, when asked if it was appropriate for a government MP to sit down with O’Brien, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said she was “not aware” of the proposed meeting.
