A new video compilation has drawn attention to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s contrasting responses to two recent demonstrations — last month’s pro-Palestinian protest on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the “March for Australia” rally held over the weekend.
In remarks following the Harbour Bridge protest, Albanese described the event as a legitimate expression of community sentiment.
“Yesterday’s march was peaceful,” he said. “It was an opportunity for people to express their concern about what is happening in Gaza.”
The protest included participants calling for peace and justice, with some marching on behalf of Palestinian Christians affected by the conflict. However, the rally also drew criticism after demonstrators were filmed burning an Australian flag and carrying a large portrait of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a rifle.
By contrast, the Prime Minister adopted a sharply critical tone when addressing the March for Australia rally.
“As always, good people will turn up to demonstrate their views about particular issues,” he said. “But what we have here is Neo-Nazis being given a platform. That’s what we saw on the weekend. And the tone, of course, of much of the rallies was, unfortunate, is the best way that you could put it — but hateful in some of the extreme examples.”
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns was similarly accused of double standards, treating hate speech laws differently when Taliban and ISIS flags were displayed at the Sydney Harbour Bridge protest, compared to his call for a police investigation following the March for Australia.
Prior to the Sunday rally, Federal Ministers Tony Burke and Anne Aly, speaking on behalf of the Albanese Government, released a joint statement condemning the march, declaring that the Federal Government opposed the rally and that “nothing could be less Australian.”
“There is no place for any type of hate in Australia,” the statement read.
Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, said: “There is no place in our country for people who seek to divide and undermine our social cohesion. We stand with modern Australia against these rallies — nothing could be less Australian.”
Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Anne Aly, said: “Multiculturalism is an integral and valued part of our national identity. We stand with all Australians, no matter where they are born, against those who seek to divide us and who seek to intimidate migrant communities. We will not be intimidated.
“This brand of far-right activism grounded in racism and ethnocentrism has no place in modern Australia.”
The British Australian Community responded to the government’s joint statement, describing it as philosophically incoherent and accusing the Federal Government of promoting an erasure of Australia’s Anglo-Celtic heritage under the guise of multiculturalism.
Writing on behalf of BAC, Paul Facey challenged the government’s assertion that all Australians have a right to feel safe and welcome, pointing to the importation of diverse cultures as a source of social division and potential conflict, supported by research on ethno-religious diversity and the likelihood of civil war.
He also accused the government of lying by claiming there is no place for hate in Australia, arguing that anti-White and anti-Australian hate is effectively condoned.
“Not only are foreigners allowed to hate Australian culture by establishing their own linguistic and religious enclaves, but even the active defacement of statues of Australian heroes is not punished by our government, and even tacitly approved of,” Facey said. “Thus, on a factual basis, there is, in fact, a place for at least some forms of hate in Australia, especially of the anti-White kind.”
Facey went on to say, “At its core, the statement is an official declaration of the regime’s hostility to the interests of ethnic Australians, and an assertion of power over what ‘Australia’ really is, contrary to the monumental heritage preceding the current elite.”
You can read the BAC’s full Press Release below:
