First they came for Theo…
The newly legislated Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill may have found one of its first examples; not in a violent extremist, but a larrikin welder from Sydney who likes fishing.
Australian welder-activist Theo Nolan-Isles is currently being held on remand and charged under new federal legislation after his arrest on or around 25 January 2026 for a post that remains pinned on his X profile. In the few days since, he has been shuffled between multiple correctional facilities and granted limited—if any—contact with his lawyer, doctor or loved ones, and could face federal charges.
In the immediate aftermath of the passage of the Combating Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026, Theo’s pinned post—a satirical offer to buy a beer for anyone who caused “physical pain” to politicians who supported the bill—was interpreted as using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and and may yet qualify for the new federal offence. Nolan-Isles later clarified that the tweet was “not an endorsement or enticement”. Yet the intended point—highlighting a serious erosion of public freedom—appears to have been completely lost on those who moved so quickly to charge him.
Theo Nolan-Isles is the quintessential Australian bloke. Born in Tasmania and now living in Sydney’s west, he is a welder and sculptor who drives an iconic 1980s 75 Series LandCruiser ute, owns a dog and loves camping and fishing. He also has a strong social conscience.
Like many ordinary Australians who became active on the Palestine issue, Theo was once largely uninterested in Middle Eastern politics. It was his exposure to the plight of Palestinians after 7 October 2023 that prompted him to display a Palestinian flag on his ute and in his front yard. In January 2024, as the Israeli response to the 7 October attacks grew increasingly brutal—with hospitals and schools being levelled—Theo became involved in an exchange with a Zionist neighbour over the flag in his yard, while most neighbours were supportive.
What might have been dismissed as an “A Current Affair” gone wrong—if it weren’t so serious—escalated from sharp words between neighbours to a car bomb being placed on Theo’s vehicle in Sydney. As the victim of an actual bomb threat, it took NSW Police eight weeks to apprehend the suspect—in stark contrast to the lightning response to his tweet. Theo has been denied visits, phone calls and meaningful legal contact, must complete unspecified training before seeing friends, and has been unable to access his medication or doctor. All of this over a couple of hundred characters from a larrikin.
It has been a long couple of years for those who have witnessed what many describe as a Western-backed genocide carried out by Israel. It is exhausting to live in a country that curtails public freedoms and condemns its own citizens for speaking out. For more than two years the interconnected digital world has broadcast daily images of death and destruction from Gaza and the West Bank—images that continue to this day. The consequences of this grim status quo, including domestic political violence such as the Bondi tragedy, have left Australian society deeply changed and diminished.
Like millions of Australians who draw on a proud protest tradition stretching back before Federation, Theo’s activism—his resistance to the role our government plays in the global status quo—is now under direct attack at both federal and state levels. A man shaped by his own lived experience as the target of extremism, he opposes it in all its forms and views Zionism as a dangerous extremist ideology that must be challenged—a position shared by many across the country who don’t feel like it belongs in Australian culture.
The hate speech laws Theo was satirising—perhaps a little loosely—appear designed to silence and punish critics of this ideology while shielding its proponents. Theo is now among the first casualties. A man who criticised the hate speech laws themselves, and what he sees as the political class’s betrayal of public freedoms in favour of a small interest group, has been arrested for—of all things—hate speech.
In the wake of Bondi, among a swirl of reactive parliamentary work and a raft of overactive measures banged through over the summer holidays, not much is known about the shooter in custody, the motive, the failures of intelligence and police. Yet a great deal is already known about the additional burdens that will now be placed on secular Australians.
Violent and ideologically driven individuals exist in our society. Before Naveed and Sajid Akram opened fire on a holiday gathering at Bondi, the Train family (Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey) ambushed police at Wieambilla west of Brisbane in 2022; well-known sovereign citizen Dezi Freeman shot dead two police officers near Porepunkah in 2025 and remains at large. We do live in dangerous times were bombs are thrown into indigenous protests, and holiday gatherings are targeted by extremists, yet our leaders are arresting people for social media posts.
During the pandemic lockdowns in Melbourne, people drove homemade gallows down Spring Street with effigies of Dan Andrews hanging from nooses (not a good look), but no one was charged. Although the sight of a state premier dangling from a rope in front of Victorian Parliament amid chants of “Hang Dan Andrews” was disturbing, the gallows were apparently treated as symbolic—if confronting—protest imagery rather than a direct criminal act. Such are the boundaries of a free and fair society.
Inquests and inquiries into each of these cases have revealed many unique factors, but one constant remains: the perpetrators demonstrated both the intent and the capability to carry out serious violence. The same cannot be said of Theo. While others have prepared or threatened political or religious violence from the shadows, driven by anger and hatred, Theo has been a publicly facing activist motivated by love and a commitment to non-violence.
Theo is a gentle and honest soul, a warrior poet, and the archetype of an Australia that is celebrated in the words of the political class but increasingly marginalised in their actions. The dinki-di “true bloke”—nationally admired and portrayed in Shane Jacobson and Mick Molloy films from the 2000s, with all the nuance, complexity and satire that makes this kind of man—is now the guinea pig for draconian new laws in an Australia you can barely recognise, simply for posting satirically on social media.
Theo now sits in custody, with limited phone access, for suggesting in jest that any politician who voted in favour of the “Combating Antisemitism” hate speech bill was a dickhead who deserved to be told so in no uncertain terms, and that beers should be purchased as a civic duty. That is a classic Australian tongue-in-cheek statement from the type of Australian traditionally celebrated in folklore—living in a country that has changed around him.
A satirical post from a lovable larrikin without a violent bone in his body is now a crucible in the debate about free speech, political expression, hate speech laws, and selective enforcement in Australia. Theo stands on the frontline of the dark future encroaching on our valued public freedoms, and his arrest should send shivers through every Australian. Now they have come after an everyday Australian, for some keystrokes—first they come for Theo… who is next?
And so the darkness continues to approach.
Two letters in the past two weeks or so to my federal representative who is the AG as it happens. Asking if I will be arrested for the true statements "Israel is committing genocide on Palestinians in Gaza" or "Thailand has committed genocide on the Rohinga". Nothing to report in the nebulous avoid answering response.
We are heading the same way as the UK arresting 80 year old grannies and ministers. Our first one happens to be a larrikan.
Thank you for making this public Joel. I wonder how or when or if mainstream media will report this? I hope we can find out about Theo's welfare soon.