As Australia slides into its summer, it is leaving behind months marked by nationwide protests on one major issue – migration.
In August, around 50,000 people demonstrated in towns and cities across the country. There were clashes at separate rallies between far-right and far-left protesters in Melbourne.
In October, there were more protests. This time police accused the far left of attacking officers and trying to confront right-wing protesters.
Tension on both sides is running high.
Sydney protester Fran Grant has attended all the rallies.
“I love Australia and I’m not happy with what’s happening now,” she explained.
“It looks like the Labour government are continuing to bring in immigrants. I have no problem with that if we have the infrastructure to support it, but we don’t.”
Migration levels now falling
During the COVID crisis, Australia introduced strict border closures and migration plummeted.
Then, in the years following the pandemic, there was a migration boom. A total of 1.4 million people entered Australia.
These were huge numbers. However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows net overseas migration has since fallen by almost 40% since its post-COVID peak.
But many Australians still believe the numbers are still too high.
‘We can’t keep going like this’
Auburn, Sydney
Australia’s multicultural heart is in suburbs like Auburn in Sydney, where almost 80% of families use a language other than English at home.
Steve Christou is a Cumberland City councillor and the son of Greek-Cypriot migrants.
“All we’re saying is put a stop to excess immigration until the country’s infrastructure can keep up,” he said. “We can’t keep going like this.”
He added: “We’re not blaming the migrants in the country, let’s be very clear about that. The government is being blamed for letting in 1.4 million migrants in the last three years to the point where the country can’t cope.”
Steve Christou
Mr Christou spoke to protesters at the rally in October. There were families, students and seniors in the crowd, flying Australian flags and singing Australian songs.
Critics have called these protests racist, inflammatory and dangerous, but many people attending said they were there to show their pride for Australia and its way of life.
Others were demonstrating against the country’s housing shortage and the increasing cost of living.
Neo-Nazi Melbourne march
Australia’s neo-Nazis emboldened
In August, dozens of Australia’s neo-Nazis also attended the Melbourne and Sydney protests and addressed the crowds.
In Melbourne, migration demonstrations and counter-protests turned violent. Neo-Nazis allegedly attacked an indigenous camp in the city.
Speaking at an anti-racism rally in Sydney, deputy leader of the Australian Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, told Sky News: “The far right are emboldened in a way that I have never seen before.”
Senator Faruqi was born in Pakistan but has lived in Australia for more than 30 years.
Mehreen Faruqi
“They [far right] are coming out on the streets, they have signs and slogans and chants that are white supremacists, white nationalists, and of course, this is happening across the world.”
Terrorism and far-right expert, Dr Josh Roose, from Deakin University in Melbourne, said: “We know that the Nazis see this as their time to capitalise.
“They’re not only attending these rallies, but they’re seeking to position themselves at the front, to mobilise people and shape the public conversation by normalising extreme ideas.”
Bec ‘Freedom’
At the “March for Australia” rally in October, organiser Bec “Freedom” told Sky News that the neo-Nazis are “proud Australians .. standing up for our country against mass immigration. So long as they’re not violent, they’re welcome here.
“While they’re at my event, they’ve been told to keep it respectful. No hate speech, no violence, no Hitler talk,” she said.
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Ms Freedom said she’s “definitely not” coordinating with the neo-Nazis, that she has spoken with them and “that’s as far as it goes”.
Asked if she was worried that the presence of the neo-Nazis at the August rally would give the March for Australia movement a bad name, she replied: “The thing is we’ve been abused, and name-called by the media for so long… If you want to call me a Nazi, then fine, call me a Nazi.”
Other demonstrators said they wanted nothing to do with the neo-Nazis and had no time for the group and its messages.
On 8 November, more than 60 neo-Nazis gathered on the steps of the New South Wales state parliament, holding a banner reading “Abolish the Jewish Lobby”.
The brazen stunt shocked the public and was widely condemned by the state government.
The government is now strengthening laws against public displays of neo-Nazi ideology.
A bill to ban the burqa
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson wears a burqa in the Senate chamber. Pic: AAP/Reuters
There’s been political controversy too.
In November, Australian senator and leader of the far-right One Nation party, Pauline Hanson, created a political storm when she wore a burqa (a full-face Islamic covering) inside federal parliament.
Ms Hanson is calling for the burqa to be banned in public places. Her party is rising in the polls and drawing disaffected Coalition (or Conservative) voters to its ranks.
At home with Fran Grant and her reptiles
Ms Grant’s home is where she can really express her pride in Australia.
She has an Australian flag flying out the front, an Australian-map-shaped coffee, and a collection of native goannas and snakes.
Ms Grant with snake
Ms Grant said being born in Australia, she’s won the “lottery of life” but believes there are too many “economic migrants” coming in.
“I’m very happy for people to come here. My mum was a 10-pound pom (British migrant),” she explained.
“At the moment where the cost of living and housing is so high, instead of just saying ‘racism, racism’ let’s look at what’s best for people who live here now.”
