By Vlad Lasky
20,000 Australians marched in Sydney last Sunday. I was one of them. The media got it wrong.
When the mainstream media misrepresents something that happens in our country, I consider it the duty of any eyewitnesses to set the record straight.
I attended the March for Australia rally in Sydney on Sunday, 31st August. What I saw and experienced was very different from how it has been portrayed as a “White Australia” event, encouraging hatred of migrants.
I am a first-generation Australian of Soviet Jewish heritage, and I initially had strong reservations about attending. There were rumours that the organisers had links to extremist groups, which they denied. I didn’t know what to believe. I only decided at the last minute to go after two friends of Lebanese heritage said they were attending. I also promised myself that if I saw or heard any extremist sentiments, I would leave immediately.
What I actually witnessed was a crowd of around 20,000 Australians from all walks of life: Aboriginal, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, Indian, and many others, alongside the majority who were of European background. There were more men than women, but overall, a diverse mix of people waving Australian flags, many also dressed in Australian flag attire.
The march began in Belmore Park near Central Station and moved up Broadway to Victoria Park by the University of Sydney.
There were also around 800 police officers present, plus a helicopter overhead. Most of the police I saw stood calmly at a distance from the crowd with little to do—a sign of how peaceful the event was. At one point, I noticed a woman suffering from heat exhaustion, and she was promptly assisted.
The atmosphere was upbeat and patriotic. There were regular chants of “Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!” as well as anti-Albo slogans. Classic Aussie songs like “Sounds of Then” by Ganggajang and others were played on a sound system. We also sang our national anthem “Advance Australia Fair” a couple of times.
There was a real feeling of unity during the march—a unity I have felt missing in this country for many years. People came because they love Australia, care deeply about its future, and want the welfare of ordinary Australians to be safeguarded. Their call for sensible immigration levels was rooted not in hostility, but in genuine concern for how the housing crisis, energy crisis, and pressure on infrastructure are affecting people’s lives.
Now, let’s address the issue of extremists. NSW Police figures state there were about 30 members of a neo-Nazi group present—a tiny fraction of the 20,000 people there. They deliberately positioned themselves in front of TV cameras at the start, which explains why they can be seen prominently in the media footage.
At the end of the march, there was an open mic session after the scheduled speeches. Before it began, the organiser announced that anyone speaking risked immediate arrest if they incited violence or breached the Racial Discrimination Act or Anti-Discrimination Act. That was a clear warning, though I haven’t seen one single media outlet mention it.
The sound system was weak, and those not close to the front could hardly hear. People didn’t know how many speakers there would be, so many stayed in the hope that someone worthwhile would follow. When extremist representatives took the mic, their presence was unfortunate, but their message was quickly recognised, and they were loudly booed.
A small number of people in the audience chanted divisive slogans at their urging, but they were a minority and most of the crowd did not join in. Soon after, people began leaving en masse, including me. Up until that point, the rally had been positive and free of hostility.
I also want to make three broader points:
First, I accept that repugnant people like neo-Nazis support immigration restrictions for repugnant reasons, but that does not mean good people can’t put forward sensible reasons to lower immigration for honourable outcomes.
Second, if you think Australians who want to reduce immigration are only motivated by racism, then why don’t we scrap all restrictions on immigration altogether? Why have a limit at all? If you think unrestricted immigration is unrealistic (as I do), then the real question is: what is the correct level of immigration for Australia’s current circumstances? And how do you justify that figure without being accused of racism?
Third, it’s worth remembering that wanting high immigration can also be motivated by racism. For example, if an executive of a big corporation thinks “we can boost profits by bringing in large numbers of English-speaking migrants from developing countries who are used to much lower living standards”. That is not respect for migrants—it is exploitation rooted in racist assumptions about what those people will accept or what they deserve.
Yet this kind of thinking is rarely questioned, and it shows that the immigration debate is more complex than simply branding one side ‘racist’ and the other ‘tolerant’.
Given my heritage, I have been deeply troubled by the rise of antisemitism following the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. The Anti-Defamation League’s latest ADL100 survey shows that antisemitism is spiraling out of control worldwide. It exists everywhere, including here in Australia, which is why we must expect all communities, old and new, to embrace Australian values and leave old hatreds behind.
For the safety of our local Jewish community, the government must ensure that migrants integrate successfully and commit to those values. Beyond the challenges of housing and infrastructure, admitting too many people too quickly makes that integration far harder to achieve.
Living in Sydney’s eastern suburbs my whole life, I now encounter homeless people on the street every day. I’ve known many people who’ve had to leave their community because they couldn’t afford sudden, massive rent increases. If you’ve benefited from real estate appreciation, I say “congratulations!”. But let’s also recognise that for others, it has meant real struggle to stay in their homes or keep their small businesses afloat.
On top of this, I also encounter struggling local business owners who cry after receiving notice after notice of gas and electricity price increases. And the more people we add, the more demand we place on an electricity grid and gas supply already under pressure from the imminent closure of old coal plants and the government’s net zero commitments.
Whatever our backgrounds, I believe we must all share a commitment to Australian values, including respect for the law, equal rights, and rejecting imported hatreds.
That context matters, because the overwhelming majority of us were there for a completely different reason than the way it has been portrayed. The mainstream media cherry-picked footage of extremists and smeared 20,000 ordinary Australians who want nothing more than fair, sustainable immigration policy.
I can say as an eyewitness: this was not a “White Australia” rally. It was not about hating migrants. It was about Australians of many backgrounds demanding sensible immigration policy in the face of serious challenges to housing, energy, and infrastructure.
We may not all agree on immigration, but we should be able to agree that honest debate deserves better than smears and distortions.
This video clip captures the spirit of the Sydney event, showing protesters peacefully marching up Broadway towards Victoria Park:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/14GSJFnBwa3/
And this video clip was when people started leaving the Sydney event en masse (including me)—disgusted with the words of the extremists who exploited the open mic:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AvDknPiCL/
Vladimir Lasky is a Sydney-based computer systems engineer and regular speaker at Speakers’ Corner in the Domain.
