Let’s be blunt here, shall we? Unless you are First Nations, you are not native to this continent; you, yourself, are a descendant of immigrants. That’s the historical truth. But today’s “March for Australia” twists this reality into a jarring performance of settlers defending a stolen country from the imaginary threat of outsiders. What it really is, though, is a pageant for racists who are dressed in polyester flags and bad faith. The pretence of patriotism in this costume is paper-thin, and the foul stench of fascism seeps through every seam.
The marches’ pale-faced turnout is depressingly ironic. Colonisers marching against immigrants. Scapegoating of immigrants as the cause of the housing crisis. Meanwhile, one of the people leading this parade of idiocy, Hugo Lennon (known online as ‘Auspill’), belongs to a family notorious for land banking: sitting on vacant property, laughing their way to the bank while the rest of the country struggles.
Immigrants are not the problem. That blame rests squarely with a government that refuses to regulate, with developers, landlords, and with an economic system that prioritises shelter as a commodity while ignoring it as a human right. This truth lies deep in the stomach of protesters while they point the finger at immigrants, burying their better conscience in favour of convenient scapegoating. It’s easier to punch down than to challenge the politicians and corporations who orchestrate and profit from this mess. Blaming immigrants is a lazy lie, designed to let the real culprits off the hook.
And that’s what makes this whole thing so dangerous. Today was not just a protest, but a recruitment drive for hate. People are being convinced that their neighbour is the enemy.
If someone you know turned up to this protest, don’t let them shrug it off as “just standing up for Australia.” Confront them. Ask them why they’d rather lock arms with fascists than fight the ones actually bleeding us dry. Call out the hypocrisy, demand they explain why they think the problem lies with struggling families moving to Australia in search of prosperity, rather than the rich hoarding land and actively denying such prosperity to the majority of Australians. If you have privilege, use it. Learn the facts and have uncomfortable conversations. Excusing rhetoric as harmless is how this hateful poison spreads.
Finally, let’s stop sugar-coating the truth. If Nazis organise the event, if Nazis march in it, and if Nazi rhetoric underpins the messaging, then it is a Nazi protest. Full stop. There is no ‘but…’ here. It doesn’t matter how many flags they wave or how many times they shout the word patriot. If you’re standing shoulder to shoulder with fascists, you’ve picked your side. Wrapping hatred in a flag doesn’t make it patriotic, it remains pathetic.
These protestors rarely, if ever, grapple with the reality of Indigenous Australians. The country they claim to defend is one to which they have no ancestral claim, marching as if history began with their arrival. Their pattern of punching down continues with our most oppressed: First Nations people continue to face systemic dispossession, marginalisation, and erasure. Yet, the minds of this march seem unwilling to acknowledge the truth of Indigenous sovereignty. This selective outrage highlights the fundamental hypocrisy of defending a nation that owes its existence to stolen land and suppressed histories, all while turning a blind eye to those who were actually here first.
The “March for Australia” sure as hell isn’t about love of country. It’s embarrassing for Australia as it shows how willing some are to keep repeating the same lies, generation after generation, instead of facing reality. It is impossible to ignore the parallels between photos from today’s “March for Australia” and those taken at the nationally disgraceful Cronulla riots of 2005: racist hatred draped in the Southern Cross and Union Jack. Today’s protest was decorated with Eureka flags and the Red Ensign, symbols popular among Australia’s neo-Nazi movement. We have seen these images before. We have seen Trump and his followers dress hatred in red, white, and blue.
Nazis are not welcome here.
To the people who marched? They deserve to be remembered, not as patriots, but as conspirators to an embarrassing and hateful spectacle that history will look back on with disgust
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