Two men have been charged with assaulting an officer at a Broadway hotel, while a woman was arrested for breaching the peace in Hyde Park on Sunday, following an anti-immigration protest that saw 15,000 people march in Sydney, according to NSW Police.
Officers were called to Bar on Broadway at 5:15pm on Sunday, following reports of a brawl involving marchers. In dispersing the group, a male constable was allegedly assaulted by two men, who were both arrested following a short foot pursuit.
The march was one of over 20 ‘March for Australia’ rallies held in major cities around the country.
Organiser Bec ‘Freedom’ Walker, who prior to the march had sought to distance it from far-right groups, addressed the crowd in Belmore Park, urging demonstrators to keep the peace.
“We have to be polite, we have to be well behaved because we want to send a message, we don’t want to cause violence,” she said. “We just want to stand up and fight for Australia.”
The assembly, mostly waving Australian flags, marched 1.4km down Broadway, chanting ‘Albo has to go’ and ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’, as well as various calls to end immigration. The rally was critical of several groups, including Indigenous Australians, Muslims, the government, and the media.
Despite insisting the protest was not for promoting extremist views, members of far-right self-proclaimed neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, were present and distributed fliers in Belmore Park, before leading the march and speaking at Victoria Park, near Sydney University.
One member was seen shouting “wrong flag” at an Aboriginal flag, before leading booing at the front of the march.
Thousands gathered in Belmore Park ahead of the March for Australia protest. Photo: Chris McCarthy.
During speeches in Victoria Park, the group’s leader Jack Eltis pushed a white-Australia rhetoric, before being ushered away by police.
A counter-protest ran from Prince Alfred Park, organised by the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC). While only a few hundred attended, a spokesperson for RAC said: “Our event shows the depth of disgust and anger about the far-right agenda of March For Australia”.
The RAC marched joined the weekly pro-Palestine demonstration in Hyde Park, which saw approximately 3,000 gather according to police. The march was escorted by police to avoid clashes between the two groups.
Main image of ‘March for Australia’ protesters by Chris McCarthy.
