Thousands took to the streets of Australian cities for an anti-immigration protest and demonstration today.
The event was organised by the March for Australia, a group deemed to be far-right users on social media. The organisers of the march called for an “end to mass migration”, claiming immigration policies have eroded Australia’s unity.
The protestors also distributed flyers that asked them to “take our country back” and “defend our culture.”
Some flyers that were distributed before the march by the organisers had inflammatory messages against immigrants on them, especially targeted towards Indians. The flyer said, “More Indians in 5 years than Greeks and Italians in 100.”
The march for Australian organisers said on X about the flyer, “ This is not a racial statement. This is a statement to put into perspective how unprecedented even the last 5 years of migration are into Australia. No one can deny the cultural and demographic impact of Greeks and Italians, so why do our political class ignore the cultural and demographic impact of Indians coming in and with many orders of magnitude higher amounts? “
Another part of the flyer says, “the majority is with us”. The flyer accused political leaders in Australia of ignoring the public opinion.
Senator Murray Watt and Opposition senator James Paterson earlier expressed their concern over neo-Nazi’s attending the rallies. Senator Paterson said he was “concerned about some of the material that organisers have posted, which targets Indian Australians in a way that I think is shameful and wrong”.
The March for Australia organisers have strongly opposed accusations that they were associated with neo-Nazis. An investigation into the website of the group showed that it had a connection to white nationalist ideologies. One organiser was also found to have shared memes supporting the Nazi ideology, according to ABC News.
Meanwhile, Tom Sewell, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi, addressed the crowd at the protest in Melbourne. He spoke to the crowd, saying, “We are here as Australians, proud and true and thoroughbred," and called for an end to mass migration.
ABC news reported that counter protestors showed up to the march. Some signs by them said “you are all immigrants.”
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, when asked about the protest, said “minority view .. that doesn’t represent what the overall majority of South Australians believe and know. “2.4 per cent of the South Australian population is Indigenous. That means that 97.6 per cent of South Australians have an immigrant heritage. I’m proud of mine, and I think most South Australians are proud of theirs. Let me make this perfectly clear – the overwhelmingly majority of South Australians don’t just tolerate diversity and multiculturalism, we celebrate it. It’s part of who we are. It is not just something that is part of our social fabric; it is the very essence of our social fabric.”
An estimate of 15,000 protestors attended the anti-immigration march. The much small counterprotestor numbers were estimated to be between 2000 and 3000 and were organised by the Palestine Action Group.
The protests took place in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide,Canberra, Perth, Hobart, Darwin
