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Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies on Sunday across nearly 20 cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Townsville in a “March for Australia”.
Social media messages and brochures for the march highlighted the rapid growth of the Indian-born population. “More Indians in 5 years, than Greeks and Italians in 100. And that’s just from one country,” one message read.
Another post on X by the organisers claimed they were demanding what “mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.”
Yet, for many Indians living in the country, the ground reality appears far less hostile than the protests suggest.
A Bengali resident of Sydney told The Telegraph Online that he did not feel alienated in daily life. “Australia is indeed a very multicultural country and no, that is not lip service at all,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He saw one of the rallies as a bystander with his daughter.
“It is not so much as the media is showing,” he said. “Protesters are saying immigration numbers are out of control but nothing against Indians per se. And most important, when Australia opened the migration cap after Covid, a lot of people did come. It is kind of crowded… housing prices have increased, so the Australian locals are actually ‘anti-mass migration,’ not anti-Indian immigrants.”
He added that the racist element “not so much” defined the protests, and stressed that Australia remained a democratic and open society where people had the right to protest.
“I am hopeful that, like every year, Diwali will be celebrated with pomp. It is usually celebrated as a huge festival here. I am not worried about the protests spilling into everyday life.”
His teenaged daughter, he said, often reassures her parents that, ‘In school it’s not a big deal. All my friends get along, we visit each other’s homes…there are no problems.”
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Indian-born community is the second-largest migrant group after those from the UK. As of June 2023, about 845,800 Indian-born residents lived in Australia, making up more than 3 per cent of the population. Their numbers doubled between 2013 and 2023.
The “March for Australia” website described immigration as having “torn at the bonds that held our communities together” and cited what it called growing “anti-Australian hatred” and “foreign conflicts” in local streets.
Police estimated around 5,000 people were involved in Melbourne’s rallies and counter-protests combined. Officers used pepper spray, baton rounds and public order munitions after clashes broke out, leading to six arrests and injuries to two officers, per media reports.
Canberra saw a few hundred gather near Parliament House, while in Queensland, federal MP Bob Katter attended a rally in Townsville. The Courier-Mail reported he was “swarmed with hundreds of supporters,” days after he had threatened a journalist for mentioning his Lebanese heritage.
Despite the sharp rhetoric from far-right groups, both ruling and opposition parties in Australia have repeatedly acknowledged the Indian community’s contributions. With their presence rooted in rising skilled migration and student enrollments, Indians have become a visible part of Australia’s social fabric.
The Albanese government condemned the rallies, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier equating them with neo-Nazi activism. “All Australians, no matter their heritage, have the right to feel safe and welcome in our community,” he said.
Tony Burke, minister for home affairs, said, “There is no place in our country for people who seek to divide and undermine our social cohesion. Nothing could be less Australian.”
For many, like the Bengali family in Sydney, the latest protests are less about ethnicity and more about anxieties over housing stress, the rising cost of living, and unemployment.
