“Australia Unites” Rallies Mobilise Again, as Social Cohesion Increasingly Fractures

Australia Unites Against Government Corruption rallies are taking place nationwide this Saturday, 13 September 2025. These events are being staged by a coalition of groups associated with the Freedom movement, which led antiimmigration marches in city centres on 31 August 2025 that were marked by racism and a neo-Nazis presence. Although many have insisted racism was not involved.

This Saturday’s marches don’t have the single focus of the recent turnouts, however, as the broader issue this time is government corruption, and while immigration reform remains a grievance, it appears on a list alongside opposing the coming social media ban, the digital ID, the WHO pandemic agreement, as well as calls for the reining in of the cost-of-living and housing crises.

No longer planning to march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia Unites has stressed a zero tolerance for racism, but after large numbers of the movement marched alongside not just Nazis but also Southern Cross-draped “freedom fighters” who openly espoused white supremacist sentiment on 31 August 2025, this is a difficult line to draw now, especially as migration gripes are still on the menu.

If the majority white Australian participants of the March for Australia rallies were seriously concerned about having set the scourge of racism loose in the community, they would not be marching against immigration again this Saturday, especially after Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price gave the racism official political backing and provided a target: the Indian community.

Following outcry over NSW authorities having simply dismissed any potential for trouble at the 31 August migration rallies that neo-Nazis had confirmed they’d be attending, NSW police did seek court intervention to prevent this week’s Australia Unites protests from crossing the Harbour Bridge. Yet, scenes on Gadigal land at Bondi Beach reveal the fracturing of social cohesion is society-wide.

Uniting selectively

“A vote of no confidence isn’t just a formality, it’s a statement,” the Australia Unites website says. “The subtext is clear: trust is gone, authority has cracked and survival is hanging by a thread. Even if the leader scrapes through, the writing is on the wall — their power has slipped, their backing has fractured, and the countdown to change has already begun.”

The ABC quotes NSW police on 3 September2025 outlining that officers at the North West Metropolitan Region command had received a Form 1, or a notification of a proposal to hold a protest that if left unchallenged results in immunity from protest-related criminal offences during an event, and they’d been in consultation with the stakeholders about their intention to march across the bridge.

The Freedom movement sprung up during the COVID pandemic period and prior to turning its attention towards immigration, it has opposed vaccinations, and it includes adherents who consider themselves sovereign citizens and many participants that hold to conspiracy beliefs, like QAnon. Organisers of the coming Sydney Australia Unites event are expecting up to 10,000 demonstrators.

Following deliberations, NSW police launched action with the NSW Supreme Court, seeking a prohibition order against the Sydney march that sought to meet at Milsons Point and march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The organisers, however, then dropped the plans to cross the bridge, and are now set to meet on Gadigal land in Hyde Park North to march through the CBD and then back.

Justice Peter Garling had listed an urgent hearing for last Monday afternoon, the ABC further explained, but the respondent, Mary-Jane Liddicoat, emailed the registrar last Friday, confirming that she and her lawyer were interstate and would be there for the 8 September hearing, but later that night, she emailed again stating she couldn’t find a legal representative and she felt “ambushed”.

Entrenching targeted racism

The 31 August 2025 March for Australia rallies descended into aggressive intimidation and straight out brawling in Naarm-Melbourne, where neo-Nazis were most prominent. But the rally on Gadigal in Belmore Park saw a sizable number of National Socialist Network members expressing their extreme hate in the crowd. And footage too shows that racism was not reserved to the black-clad Nazis.

Any moves to counteract the surge in racism has been dashed, however, after Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampinjinpa Price told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that some of the rallies’ sentiment had been against the Indian community, whom she said federal Labor is favouring in migration programs because they tend to vote for the party.

The Liberal Party leadership was unable to rollback these comments, despite maintaining they were wrong, and this was even after they demanded Price apologise. Yet, the damage has been done, as a week later, there are clips circulating on Indian social media showing images of the March for Australia rallies, stating that Australians had marched against Indian migration.

Nampinjinpa Price has refused to apologise for her dog whistling comments in the tradition of former party stalwarts, such as Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton. She has instead confirmed that she “won’t be silenced” and has been dumped from the shadow cabinet, with the fallout having led to questions about the viability of the leadership of the party, which is currently led by MP Sussan Ley.

Price’s outburst did, however, come just a few days after Indian PM Narendra Modi appeared beside Chinese president Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in China’s Tianjin, which revealed that traditionally nonaligned Delhi is fast becoming allied with China and Russia and hence, opposed to the United States of president Trump.

Zionists unite

But in terms of dissolving social cohesion, the scenes on Bondi Beach last weekend tended to show the fracturing of civil society is well on its way, as footage taken from the perspective of the Palestinian supporters gathered on the beach to take part in the Solidarity with Gaza surfing event, the main thoroughfare above the sand was filled with Zionists waving Israeli and Australian flags.

The event had been organised by Jews Against the Occupation ’48, as an event against the Israeli-perpetrated genocide but also in recognition of the Global Sumud Flotilla. However, the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) took an affront to the event being planned, and organised a ‘not in our backyard’ counterprotest.

The Zionist outpouring on Gadigal land along the Bondi strip were clear in their understanding that the diverse mix of ethnicities involved in the Palestinian supporter surfing event were not welcome on “their” beach. Much of the Zionist turnout was understood to be made up of local residents, and some in the crowd shouted slurs, such as, “Go back to Lakemba”.

As for the Global Simud Flotilla, it’s part of an ongoing attempt to sail boats, stocked with aid for Palestinians, into Gaza that began in 2010. Sailing now, it involves 50 boats and 1,000 participants from 44 countries, who are literally risking their lives for the mission. And Tuesday saw an Israeli drone fire upon its main ship in Tunis, which was carrying Australians and activist Greta Thunberg.

Sydney city saw up to 300,000 people rally to oppose the genocide in Gaza, as they crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 3 August. These pro-Palestinian demonstrations then sparked the March for Australia events, which were anonymously organised, and some participants have been vocal online about their opposition to the pro-Palestinian and Zionist causes, as well as to their rallies.