The north Queensland MP Bob Katter has been recorded taking a membership pledge for far-right “western chauvinist” group, the Proud Boys, but has dismissed his actions as “larrikinism”.

In the company of Australian members of the men-only fraternity, Katter recites into a bullhorn: “I am Bob Katter and I am a proud western chauvinist. And it is us who brought civilisation to the world and we won’t be apologising for it.

“Don’t get in our way,” Katter adds.

US civil rights group the Southern Poverty Law Centre classifies the Proud Boys as a hate group and previously US law enforcement has highlighted the group’s links to white nationalists.

Katter’s pledge was a slight improvisation on the pledge that all Proud Boys make: “I am a proud western chauvinist, and I will not apologise for creating the modern world.”

A video of Katter taking the pledge was posted online in September 2017 and provided to the Guardian by the White Rose Society, an anti-fascist group.

Alongside Katter as he makes the pledge is Queensland Proud Boy, Ben Shand, who runs several social media channels under the nom de guerre The Dusty Bogan.

Shand has appeared under that moniker and his own name on Australian far-right podcasts like The Unshackled.

On his Dusty Bogan YouTube channel, Shand has interviewed a number of Australian far-right figures, including Blair Cottrell.

Cottrell has been a long-time organiser on the Australian far right, and who was extensively praised by the accused Christchurch killer Brenton Tarrant. In the interview, Shand speaks to Cottrell about several topics including the conspiracy theory of “cultural Marxism”.

Shand’s channel also features video from a Brisbane rally in support of white South African farmers last September, which was also attended by the former senator Fraser Anning, the Liberal MP Andrew Laming and several other Proud Boys.

Another video features him handing out how-to-vote cards for an independent candidate in the Queensland seat of Blair, John “Sandy” Turner, whose Facebook page is festooned with Islamophobic and anti-immigrant memes.

In response to a question as to how he came to be in the company of Proud Boys, Katter commented in an email: “My irresponsible larrikinism often gets me into trouble.

“Young blokes always come up to me on the street, at venues, so I think you’ll probably find 4,000 examples of me mixing with irresponsible people,” Katter added.

Asked why he had recited their pledge, whether he was a member and whether he supported the group, Katter said: “I don’t know who this group is or anything about it.”

The Proud Boys were founded by Gavin McInnes, who was prevented from entering Australia for a planned tour last year on character grounds.

McInnes publicly resigned from the Proud Boys last year just a week after the Guardian revealed that, according to law enforcement officers in Clark County, Washington, the FBI considered the Proud Boys an “extremist group with ties to white nationalism”.

When asked if he was supportive of the decision to exclude McInnes from the country in 2018, Katter said: “I would tenaciously back the government on their decision.”

He added that “we separate ourselves from extremist groups and we consider extremist groups to be very dangerous and have always backed any measures without curtailing freedom of expression. You can laugh at extremists but you want to keep your foot on their throat.”

He then wrote of his “great passion for the First Australians”.

Elsewhere in Australia in recent months, far-right groups have attempted to infiltrate mainstream political parties, including Katter’s former party, the National party.

In recent weeks, chat logs involving the Proud Boys in the United States have reportedly shown plans for violence at rallies. While the group and its leaders have been mostly banned from mainstream social media platforms, Proud Boys groups, including Australia’s Proud Boys, are using a less regulated messaging app, Telegram, for communications, recruitment and vetting.

In the Proud Boys Australia vetting channel on Telegram, many young men have posted videos reciting the same pledge Katter did, in order to begin their membership process.

Katter, the long-standing member for the rural Queensland seat of Kennedy, briefly counted Fraser Anning as a senator for his party.

Katter has also been the subject of several viral political videos, including one in which he abruptly shifted from talking about same-sex marriage to crocodile attacks in north Queensland.