Note: The following article contains distressing content.
Unlike the scenes of extraordinary violence that left many injured at the anti-immigration March for Australia a few weeks ago, this past weekend’s rallies were an awkward, at times confused affair.
Those waving the Australian flags at the Parliament House of Victoria on Saturday offered a somewhat different take on the issues than those at the nationwide protests last month. Even the organisers decried the mixed messaging of the September 13 events and suggested people stay home.
“I understand that people believe we need to keep the momentum going, and that’s why they should attend the 13th, but the fact is, the Freedom Movement and the Nationalist Movement are two very different things,” wrote Bec Freedom, the screen name of one of the most prominent March for Australia organisers.
“They are not my people, and that behaviour is unacceptable and un-Australian. They called us racist for wanting to put Australia first. They called us racist for wanting to unite as one under the Australian flag, they called us racist because we asked for no foreign flags. I’ll say it again, they are not my people and I will not unite with them.”
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Representatives of the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network (NSN), which in some capacity assisted in organising the March for Australia rallies, also posted online that it would not be in attendance on the 13th and urged others to stay home.
Using a slur to describe competing rally organisers Darren Bergwerf and Craig Cole, Harrison McLean (Dominic D) says they will not be welcome on the rally on September 13th.
Even still, there was a great deal of sparring online regarding the protests this past weekend. Former anti-COVID-lockdown organiser Harrison McLean’s group, Worldwide Rally For Freedom, as well as conspiracy theory group My Place Australia, both claimed ownership of the September 13 rally, creating different fliers for an event that would occur in the same space and time. Both sides announced online that the other would not be welcome.
McLean spoke before NSN leader Thomas Sewell at the March for Australia protest a few weeks ago, and expressed in a Telegram group chat he runs that he would like to have a “reasonable alliance with the Nationalist movement”.
The other organising group, My Place, is representative of sovereign citizen circles, with members of the community having spoken against the white nationalist speakers at the MFA rally.
McLean eventually agreed not to speak on September 13 but was seen in attendance. After all the conflict, what resulted was a significant decrease in attendance, with only an estimated 1,000 protesters gathering before the Parliament House of Victoria on Saturday — at least triple that on August 31.
Those who did show up expressed a dizzying array of ideas, speaking on everything from “immigration reform” to theories about chemtrails and the Freemasons controlling the government. Many issues centred around the same concerns rallied around for years by former “Freedom Movement” activists, including anti-vaccine and anti-transgender messaging.
An anti-Freemason sign seen at the rally.
An attendee with signs decrying Digital ID, QR codes and biometrics as satanic.
The same attendee speaks on numerology on the US one-dollar bill.
One figure at the event, Jacquie Dundee, spoke in support of Desmond “Dezi” Freeman, who remains at large after being accused of murdering two Victoria Police officers in Porepunkah.
“We also need justice for Dezi. Dezi Freeman was a good man,” Dundee said. “They’ve targeted him. God, we hope he’s still alive and hasn’t been slaughtered.”
In a wide-ranging speech on the steps of the Victorian Parliament, she also spoke about Covid vaccines — calling them a “bioweapon” — denounced “psyops” and quoted random sections of the Australian constitution.
Former Liberal state MP for the Western Metropolitan Region Bernie Finn, who also spoke at the event, would later release a statement online saying: “I wish to disassociate myself from the comment by another speaker at today’s rally that Dezi Freeman is any sort of hero. He most certainly is not!”
An attendee of the rally.
A banner that makes mention of reptilian overlords.
Attendees share a kiss before the rally.
Elle, who spoke to us, brought a sign comparing recently assassinated US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to George Floyd, the African-American man who was killed by a Minneapolis Police Department officer in 2020.
“I’m so sick of myself being labelled a Nazi,” one protester in attendance, Elle, told us.
“I understand, like, things that they stand for. Like, obviously, we all do comprehend what they stand for. And, yeah, it’s a little more sort of in your face… and some of the things they do are like, ‘Oh my god, did you just do that?’”
“But at the same time, I sort of go, how far can someone be pushed before, like, what if these people, and it’s, I’m not giving any excuse for behaviours. And I’m not saying that we must cull immigration, but we need to vet. We need to be accountable. We need to be aware of who is actually coming into this country.”
Another sign referencing Charlie Kirk, with Je suis Charlie being French for ‘I am Charlie’. The phrase became popular in the wake of a January 2015 shooting in which 12 people were killed at the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Another Je suis Charlie reference.
Attendee Matthew Morton told Crikey that he was a professional exorcist and offered to perform an exorcism on Emily Grace, co-author of this piece. When asked if he thought she needed an exorcism, he replied that everyone has some demons in them, before telling Emily to cover her eyes and repeat phrases asking God for forgiveness.
“Do you feel anything?” Morton asked afterwards, raising his voice to speak over Rose Tattoo’s 1982 song “We Can’t Be Beaten” that was playing over loudspeakers set up on the steps of Victorian Parliament.
“Yeah, maybe. I’m not sure,” Grace replied.
An attendee performs an exorcism on Crikey writer Emily Grace.
A rally-goer with a sign that reads ‘Proud to be Australian ashamed of my government’.
A sign referencing One Nation leader Pauline Hanson at the rally.
“There was no violence on the 31st,” one attendee told us. When asked about the violence we had experienced firsthand that day, she replied: “That was all fake, a set-up. The media was told where to be in a certain place at a certain time to make us look bad. There was zero violence on the 31st.”
Crikey witnessed many scenes of extraordinary violence across many hours on the 31st and was not told by anyone where to be.
There was still tension on the day, with several clashes between protestors and counter-protesters seen by Crikey.
A hat with several buttons with MAGA references.
Left-wing coalitions, meanwhile, assembled a large counter-demonstration that vastly outnumbered the rally at parliament.
Jill, who took part in the counter-protest, talked to us about why she was in attendance. “To stand up for human rights and to stand up for our brothers and sisters, because we’re all immigrants here on this land, and we have to make a stance that racism is totally intolerable.”
“When I look at the two sides, for want of a better word, the people are carrying the Australian flag and the flag of the Southern Cross as a flag of hate, and we’ve got the First Nations flag here as a symbol of love and humanity. And I think we have to take back the ownership, all of us, of the Australian flag and be proud as all Australians.
“We need to come together. Yeah, I can have an informed dialogue, because if we don’t, the false narrative is amplified. So we really — and everybody cares about a better Victoria, a better Australia. But hate is no way to make it better for everybody. We have to sit down and have a dialogue with government, dialogue with each other.”
An attendee of the counter-rally.
A counter-protester with a sign seen at the counter-rally.
A counter-protester with a sign seen at the counter-rally.
Emma was another counter-protester who spoke to us.
“I was born to a Filipino mother and an English father who both immigrated here, but only one of those matters, and it’s the one that shows up on my face. So I get caught up in it no matter what, when there was all this anti-Chinese sentiment, no-one in my family has been Chinese since, like, my great, great, great grandma, yeah, and I will cop it anyway.
“But living here, it’s like, usually such a blissful life. I always think this city is super accepting, and I’ve been able to live here with minimal issues. That’s why I really wanted to show up today. Because I can’t believe that was my city where I was born and raised. They’re claiming to be part of what they think is true Australia, like White Australia. I’m like, is it true? Australia?
“The Anzacs, you give so much of a shit about, were fighting against this very ideology and fought for the right for migrants to come to this country, and for racism and hate and that doctrine to not spread and win. If they want to fix the genuine issues that there are in the government, being a Nazi or just saying ‘Let’s kick all the immigrants out’, it’s not going to fix anything, not a single thing.”
As the groups dispersed, police had more difficulty keeping them apart.
Police generally kept the groups apart across the day, but confrontations did occur.
As the right-wing rally ended and began to disperse, the counter-protest marched away down Lonsdale Street. At the intersection of Lonsdale and Swanston, some confusion ensued as Indigenous leaders tried to lead the march to Camp Sovereignty, while others representing Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and Socialist Alternative led the march in the opposite direction to disperse from the State Library of Victoria.
“Listen to Mob! Go to Camp Sovereignty!” some demonstrators were heard shouting.
Several small-scale clashes continued to break out as individuals marching to Camp Sovereignty came into contact with people waving Australian flags. Pepper spray was deployed by officers on those who engaged in fights, but none were arrested.
‘We are not Nazis!’ a man with a flag shouted before being doused in pepper spray by officers.
Police officers push a right-wing activist away.
Counter protestors were heckled by those at the anti-immigration rallies.
A right-wing demonstrator washes pepper spray from his eyes.
After these violent flare-ups, one right-wing demonstrator brought his young child to stand in front of him as he continued jeering at counter-protesters through the police line.
Left-wing activists were moved by police down Princes Bridge toward Camp Sovereignty, where they celebrated the day before dispersing.
A young child stands with his father before a police line after pepper spray was deployed towards their group.
An attendee of the counter-protest heads to Camp Sovereignty.
Police move right-wing protesters away from the left-wing group.
Right-wing protester smiles as he waves an Australian flag at a left-wing group after being moved away by police.
