Far-right protesters hold rally in Melbourne to ‘restore’ traditional Australia Day parade
Far-right protesters have gathered in Melbourne without masks and draped in Australian flags and black and yellow ‘Proud Boys’ shirts.
About 10 people in black and yellow ‘Proud Boys’ shirts were among about 100 gathered in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens on Tuesday afternoon for a self-described ‘People’s Australia Day Parade’.
A man wearing a similar black-and-yellow Proud Boys shirt was earlier seen crashing an Invasion Day protest attended by thousands in Melbourne’s CBD, before being dragged away by police.
Those gathered in Victoria Gardens from 2pm on Tuesday wore Australian flags draped around their shoulder and on headbands.
One man wore a ‘Sack Dan Andrews’ shirt.
No one was wearing a mask.
The group set off on a march about 2.45pm to Catani Gardens near St Kilda Beach for a planned beach party.
Police officers watched the gathering from a distance but allowed the group to meet and then march to St Kilda.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed there were no arrests.
A man making a speech through a megaphone before the march said they were there as “the people” to “restore” the traditional Australia Day Parade after it was cancelled this year in line with COVID-19 restrictions.
He said they were there to celebrate “the legacy of the First Fleet” and “the brave sailors who settled our nation”.
“Australia is a proud Western nation, and we should not apologise for building the society that we live in,” he said.
“Nations are made of people, and are born of a shared sense of purpose and identity – the values and culture that we choose to protect.”
He also criticised the “international bureaucratic pseudostate” and said, “Australia shall not be subverted by cultural Marxism”.
“The Cultural Revolution of Maoist China shall never be repeated in our lifetimes,” he said.
“Our culture is worth fighting for.
“Let’s build on the legacy of Captain Arthur Phillip.”
The Proud Boys is a far-right men-only organisation which was formed in 2016 in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, for self-described “Western chauvinists” who believe white men are under threat.
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