Australia government condemns anti-immigration rally in Sydney

31/8/2025 12:14

Australia's centre-left government condemned an anti-immigration rally being held in Sydney on Sunday, which it said sought to spread hate and had links to neo-Nazis.



The March For Australia rally in the country's most populous city was one of several anti-immigration demonstrations scheduled for state and regional capitals across the country, according to the group's website.



"Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together," it says. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do "what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration".



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," 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," Watt said, asserting they were "organised and promoted" by neo-Nazi groups.