Far-right figures feature at Liberal MP Bernie Finn’s March for the Babies
Far-right extremists have joined Liberal MP Bernie Finn at his annual pro-life march to push for changes to Victoria’s abortion laws.
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Far-right extremists have joined Liberal MP Bernie Finn at his annual pro-life march to push changes to Victoria’s abortion laws.
Mr Finn, the president of March for the Babies, led the rally through the city last Saturday, which was also reportedly attended by Liberal colleague Neil Angus.
Members of the male-only far-right “Proud Boys” were seen at the rally, with a post on the group’s website describing a confrontation after the march with a counter-protester at a CBD bar.
Mr Finn told the crowd that Victoria “still has the worst, most extreme abortion law in Australia and one of the worst in the world”.
He also gave an interview at the rally to Dia Beltran, who runs a far-right YouTube channel which has featured notorious extremists Neil Erikson and Blair Cottrell, and who reportedly attended a Liberal fundraiser recently.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos called on the Liberal Party to condemn extremists “instead of walking in lock-step” with them.
“This is just more of the same from the leaderless Victorian Liberal Party — and shows once again they are being infiltrated by elements of the far-right,” she said.
Mr Finn said he knew “precisely nothing about the Proud Boys”, and that Ms Beltran had introduced herself on Saturday as a blogger and had asked for the interview.
He said it was a “sensational” day with a crowd of more than 4000 people.
Asked if any far-right extremists had attended, he told the Herald Sun: “I don’t know anybody who fits that description to tell you the truth.”
Other attendees reportedly included far-right activist Avi Yemini and Kathy Clubb, a mother of 13 children who launched a failed challenge to laws that ban protesters harassing patients outside abortion clinics.
The crowd also heard from New South Wales Liberal MP Nathaniel Smith, who recently said he was “disgusted” at changes to abortion laws in his home state.
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Reason Party leader Fiona Patten, who attended a rival pro-choice rally on Saturday, also questioned Mr Finn’s “disturbing embrace of the far-right and their ideas”.
But Mr Finn said: “I’m not aware of any undesirable elements turning up at all, apart from Fiona Patten.”