‘There’s no one there’: Video reveals country’s saddest Australia Day protest

An Australia Day protest has been brutally mocked after footage emerged of a small, “uninspiring mob” of “attention seeking” demonstrators.

An awkward Australia Day protest has been ridiculed online after video emerged of just a handful of “cookers” making a scene.

On Thursday, so-called “Unite in White” demonstrations were held in several locations across the country, including outside Parliament House in Canberra.

A flyer advertising the bizarre protest urged participants to “see the light” and “Make Australia Great Again”, explaining a “peaceful vigil” would be held to “show love and respect for our Australian Defence Forces”.

Participants were asked to “show solidarity in requesting our beloved ADF personnel to protect us”, although it was not immediately clear why protection was needed.

The Unite in White vigil was held in several locations. Picture: Twitter/@KenBerhan

The handful of Canberra participants sang the national anthem. Picture: Twitter/@KenBerhan

Protesters were asked to dress in white and wear a heart on their shirt, with a red heart symbolising “our love and thanks to our military, past and present”, while a pink heart “symbolises the children – present and future – we gently hold them in our hearts”.

Footage of the event was later shared on social media by the @KenBerhan Twitter account, which is dedicated to sharing news about “cookers” – an Australian slang term for conspiracy theorists.

The odd clip showed just a handful of people gathered on the lawn, with one woman dancing erratically under a rainbow umbrella and another brandishing a large flag while the Australian anthem is sung off-key.

Unsurprisingly, the sad demonstration was brutally mocked on social media, with one user dismissing the participants as an “uninspiring mob”, with another saying they were “just attention seeking”.

Is this the saddest Australia Day protest? Picture: Twitter/@KenBerhan

Just a few people turned up. Picture: Twitter/@KenBerhan

“There’s no one there except a few cookers,” another commented.

Other events were held at Maroochydore, Canungra, Brisbane, Hervey Bay and Yeppoon in Queensland, Wauchope and Tabulam in NSW, Perth in WA and Wodonga and Melbourne in Victoria.

Footage of the Wodonga protest also emerged, showing a small group of 10 to 15 people dressed in white attempting to deliver a letter about “slavery” at an army barracks.

Unite in White happening in Wodonga - about 10-15 of them have shown up to give a letter in to the barracks pic.twitter.com/UnOk7Hk5Jr

— SOS (@SOS149) January 26, 2023

Meanwhile, 2GB’s Ben Fordham has also lost it on air while playing a clip of some sovereign citizens who drove around Canberra on Wednesday and attempted to drum up support for their Australia Day rally.

“We’ve got another case involving the cookers – they call themselves sovereign citizens – and they are a bunch of conspiracy theorists. They don’t believe in government or the police, and another video has emerged of a cooker or two in action – they call them cookers because their brains are fried, the sovereign citizens. You’ve got to see it and hear it to believe it,” Fordham said.

He then played the audio of an almost incoherent man attempting to lure regular Canberrans.

“Hello Canberra, we the free people of Australia are here to invite everyone up to Parliament lawn tomorrow at 12 o’clock for a day of great events using barbecue and actually expressing our feelings,” he said.

But Fordham then chimed in, explaining that “they’re desperately trying to get people to the nation’s capital, they’ve been posting videos for months saying ‘everyone get to Canberra’, but what typically happens is people get to Canberra and they stand around looking at each other, saying what do we do now”.

Calling all Australians pic.twitter.com/63WRSRu9tO

— SOS (@SOS149) January 25, 2023

“They’ve been trying to serve papers to the Governor-General saying he’s no longer in charge, and now they want people to join them on Australia Day,” Fordham said, before the audio returned to the “cookers”.

“We need to do this, we need for every Australian to bind together now and be one and move forward as this beautiful nation that we are so we are inviting everyone up to Parliament tomorrow at 12pm at midday. There will be music and barbecue and a lot of good things are going to be said by a lot of good people, so we invite all of you here in Canberra, please come and join us,” the man said.

Fordham is heard bursting into laughter as the audio plays, before begging “make it stop”.

“They sound like interesting characters. I don’t know, I’m tempted to head to Canberra. Who’s coming?” he said.

Originally published as ‘There’s no one there’: Video reveals country’s saddest Australia Day protest