What does the non-party sector think about far-right political parties? Understanding the place of parties in the Australian far right

Far-right political parties form an integral component of the broader far-right landscape globally. While these parties have received extensive scholarly attention, less is known about how they are perceived within the wider far-right milieu – a relationship with significant implications for understanding movement-party dynamics in contemporary democracies. This article investigates the relationship between far-right political parties and the non-party sector through a mixed-methods approach, combining keyword frequency analysis, sentiment analysis, and qualitative content analysis. Drawing on large-scale data sets from Telegram, X (formerly Twitter), 8kun, and far-right alternative media outlets in Australia, we explore two key research questions: How does the non-party sector perceive far-right parties and politicians? And what role do these parties play within the broader far-right ecosystem? Our findings reveal a complex and often contradictory relationship, with non-party actors expressing views that reflect deeper ideological, organisational, and strategic divisions within far-right movements. These patterns of conditional support, strategic adaptation, and ideological tension offer insights applicable beyond Australia, contributing to theoretical understanding of how extra-parliamentary actors evaluate electoral politics across democratic settings.