When Fear Becomes Noise: Reflections on Australia’s Anti-Immigration Rallies

I woke up the morning after the marches and felt the same hollow ache I get when I watch a good conversation descend into shouting. The photographs and clips — faces flushed with anger, police lines, a handful of organisers and, disturbingly, extremist figures slipping into the frame — are not simply images. They are a mirror of a civic moment where anxiety, misinformation and political theatre converge.

The Prime Minister sought to put this in perspective, reminding the country that the numbers were small in the context of a nation of nearly 27 million and urging vigilance after neo-Nazi voices addressed some rallies Australia’s PM Urges Vigilance, Plays Down Anti-Migrant Protests. Words matter; downplaying can be prudent. But it cannot be an excuse for complacency.

What made the day more combustible was not just the slogans but the company they kept. Reports of Thomas Sewell and others from extremist groups turning up, and instances of clashes that required police intervention, are a reminder that some actors will seek to hijack genuine unease for dangerous ends March for Australia rallies and counter-protests taking place across Australia | SBS News. When the language of exclusion meets the language of grievance, it creates fertile soil for those who thrive on division.

I read a personal account from someone who walked among those who wanted them gone — a quiet, devastating testimonial to how fear and rhetoric translate into lived threat and shame On Sunday I walked among those who want me gone from Australia. Those first-person stories stay with me longer than statistics; they are the ethical barometer of a nation. They remind me that every policy debate ripples into safety, dignity and belonging.

At the same time, there were thousands who turned up to counter-protest — people choosing presence over passivity, affirmation over alienation. That visible resistance to xenophobia matters. It signals that the civic instinct for inclusion is alive, and that Australia’s multicultural promise is not yet surrendered to the loudest voices.

Misinformation played a clear role. Viral assertions about daily migrant arrivals and the scale of migration were amplified, despite official clarifications from the statistics bureau. When numbers are framed as an immediate threat without context, they become a political accelerant March for Australia rallies and counter-protests taking place across Australia | SBS News and reporting has shown the figures often tell a different story than the slogans claim Anti-immigration protesters say Australia's migration is at record highs — but the figures tell a different story.

There is, however, a genuine political ember beneath this conflagration: housing affordability and cost-of-living pressures are real. They are not invented by conspiracists. They are felt in waiting lists, in rent increases, in children who can’t imagine owning a home. And yet legitimate economic anxiety should not be satisfied by the simplicity of a scapegoat. When the answer offered is to blame the newcomer, we demean ourselves and miss the complex policy work required to fix the underlying problems.

I find myself returning to an idea I’ve written about before: the power of intentional thought in a crowd. A crowd’s mood is malleable — fear amplifies fear, anger breeds anger. But the opposite is true as well: deliberate voices of calm, fact and compassion can reduce tension and reframe the narrative. We cannot think our way out of structural problems, but we can change the tenor of public conversation. In that quieter reframing, a policy discourse can be had without demonisation.

The media record of the day is varied: first-person reflections that pierce the heart How do I feel safe after March for Australia?, live blogs and imagery that show clashes and arrests March for Australia rallies and counter-protests taking place across Australia | SBS News, and widespread coverage noting both the small scale and the high stakes of extremist infiltration Australia’s PM Urges Vigilance, Plays Down Anti-Migrant Protests.

So where does that leave me — and, I hope, leave us? I am concerned, yes. But I am also stubbornly committed to the belief that nations are not mere aggregates of fears but projects of mutual care. That conviction asks for three commitments:

• Hold fast to facts. When numbers are weaponised, we must interrogate them and insist on transparent, contextualised data.
• Address the real problems. Housing, welfare, wages and regional development need concrete policy attention that cannot be satisfied by slogans.
• Keep showing up for inclusion. The presence of counter-protesters mattered. The silent solidarity of neighbours matters. Civil courage is contagious.

Fear is a strong current; it pulls. But it does not have to be the tide that shapes our future. We can, with patient effort, choose structures and stories that repair rather than rend.

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Regards,
Hemen Parekh