Thousands in Australia march against immigration, government condemns rally
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Protesters taking part in the March for Australia anti-immigration rally in Sydney, Australia, on Aug 31.
PHOTO: EPA
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SYDNEY – Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country on Aug 31 that the centre-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis.
The March for Australia rallies against immigration were held in Sydney and other state capitals and regional centres, according to the group’s website.
“Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” it said. The group posted on X on Aug 30 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 said it was concerned about culture, wages, traffic, housing and 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 been grappling with a rise in right-wing extremism, including protests by neo-Nazis.
“We absolutely condemn the March For Australia Rally that’s going on today. It is not about increasing social harmony,” Mr Murray Watt, a senior minister in the Labor government, told 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,” Mr Watt said, asserting they were “organised and promoted” by neo-Nazi groups.
March for Australia organisers did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the neo-Nazi claims.
Laws banning the Nazi salute and the display or sale of symbols associated with terror groups came into effect in Australia in 2025 in response to a string of anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
Counter-protesters express ‘disgust, anger’
Some 5,000 to 8,000 people had assembled for the Sydney rally, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. Nearby, a counter-rally by the Refugee Action Coalition, a community activist organisation, took place.
“Our event shows the depth of disgust and anger about the far right agenda of March For Australia,” a coalition spokesperson said in a statement. Organisers said hundreds attended the event.
Police said hundreds of officers were deployed across Sydney in an operation that ended “with no significant incidents”.
A large March for Australia rally was held in central Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, according to aerial footage from the ABC, which reported that riot officers used pepper spray on demonstrators. Victoria Police did not confirm the report but said it would provide details on the protest later on Aug 31.
Mr Bob Katter, the leader of a small populist party, attended a March for Australia rally in Queensland, a party spokesperson said, three days after the veteran lawmaker threatened a reporter for mentioning Mr Katter’s Lebanese heritage
Mr Katter was “swarmed with hundreds of supporters” at the rally in Townsville, Brisbane’s Courier-Mail reported.
In Sydney, March for Australia protester Glenn Allchin said he wanted a “slowdown” in immigration.
“It’s about our country bursting at the seams and our government bringing more and more people in,” Mr Allchin told Reuters. “Our kids struggling to get homes, our hospitals – we have to wait seven hours – our roads, the lack of roads.” REUTERS
