SYDNEY: Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country on Sunday. The centre-left government condemned the protests, saying they spread hate and linked them to neo-Nazis.
March for Australia held rallies in Sydney, other state capitals, and regional centres, according to the group’s website.
“Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the website says. On Saturday, the group posted on X that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.”
The group also raised concerns about culture, wages, traffic, housing, water supply, environmental destruction, infrastructure, hospitals, crime, and loss of community.
Australia – where one in two people is either born overseas or has a parent born overseas – has seen a rise in right-wing extremism, including neo-Nazi protests.
“We absolutely condemn the March for Australia rally that’s going on today. It is not about increasing social harmony,” said Murray Watt, a senior minister in the Labor government, on Sky News television, when asked about the Sydney rally.
“We don’t support rallies like this that are about spreading hate and that are about dividing our community,” Watt said. He claimed neo-Nazi groups “organised and promoted” the events.
March for Australia organisers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the neo-Nazi claims.
Australia this year passed laws banning the Nazi salute and the display or sale of terror-related symbols. The move followed a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings, and cars since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
COUNTER-PROTESTERS EXPRESS DISGUST
Between 5,000 and 8,000 people, many draped in Australian flags, gathered for the Sydney rally, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The rally took place near the Sydney Marathon, where 35,000 runners raced through the streets and finished at the Opera House.
Nearby, the Refugee Action Coalition – a community activist group – held a counter-rally.
“Our event shows the depth of disgust and anger about the far-right agenda of March For Australia,” a coalition spokesperson said. Organisers said hundreds joined their protest.
Police deployed hundreds of officers across Sydney. The operation ended “with no significant incidents,” authorities said.
A large March for Australia rally also took place in central Melbourne. Aerial footage from the ABC showed riot officers using pepper spray on demonstrators. Victoria Police did not confirm the report but said it would provide details later on Sunday.
Bob Katter, leader of a small populist party, attended a March for Australia rally in Queensland, according to a party spokesperson. Three days earlier, Katter had threatened a reporter for mentioning his Lebanese heritage during a press conference about his involvement in the rally.
The Courier-Mail reported that Katter was “swarmed with hundreds of supporters” at the rally in Townsville. In Sydney, protester Glenn Allchin said he wanted immigration to slow down.
“It’s about our country bursting at the seams and our government bringing more and more people in,” Allchin told Reuters. “Our kids struggling to get homes, our hospitals – we have to wait seven hours – our roads, the lack of roads.”
Reported by Reuters news agency.