1 day ago
7
Anti-immigration protesters clash with Invasion Day marchers in Melbourne
We’re hearing from reporters on the ground that protesters from the March for Australia rally have caught up to the Invasion Day march.
A number of apparent participants in the March for Australia have met the front of the Invasion Day rally, which has just turned down Bourke Street.
Indigenous affairs reporter Douglas Smith, who is reporting from the crowd of the Invasion Day rally, says two people were quickly moved on by police but more have appeared, and are continuing to appear. Douglas says there are clashes between both groups.
The Invasion Day rally follows the same route every year: starting at Parliament House steps then marching down Bourke and Swanston streets to end outside Flinders Street station.
The March for Australia started at Flinders Street at 12pm and marched up Swanston Street, turning into Latrobe Street toward parliament. They were blocked by mounted police officers but have since turned down Lonsdale Street. Our reporter following that rally says riot police are now moving in.
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Andrew Messenger
Hanson speaks just before Brisbane march gets underway
Pauline Hanson finished speaking earlier this afternoon, and the Brisbane Australia day march has begun.
The Queensland senator and long-time One Nation leader spoke about a broad range of subjects such as climate change, the Albanese government’s anti-hate legislation and her daughter’s political ambitions in Tasmania.
But her main subject was migration.
“We’ve had mass migration,” she said.
Albanese, at the moment is talking about mass migration, that we are cutting back the numbers Well, it’s a little bit too late, mate. You’re the one that created this mess. You’re the one that brought all these people in the country, 1560 a day …
He is the worst prime minister I have ever known.
In an interview before the rally, Hanson told the Guardian she wasn’t concerned about the number of red ensigns at the rally. When asked whether sovereign citizens had attended the rally she said:
“I’m not going to get into that”.
One attendee the Guardian spoke with told him sunscreen causes cancer, and another said she attended a sovereign citizen “treason trial” at Old Parliament House last February.
All of Victoria under total fire ban tomorrow
Once again, the entire state of Victoria will be under a total fire ban tomorrow amid dangerous fire conditions and scorching heat.
Jason Heffernan, the chief officer of the state’s Country Fire Authority (CFA), said earlier temperatures would reach into the mid-40s, urging communities to stay on top of updates from the VicEmergency app as conditions could change quickly.
The main fire of concern right now is the Carlisle River fire, with multiple communities urged to prepare to evacuate as conditions change.
Heffernan said the fire danger would be intense, but also said the extreme heat could put some communities at risk, including the elderly, the very young and the sick, who were more susceptible to high temperatures.
Petra Stock
Australia’s power grid prepared for increased heat, Aemo says
The Australian Energy Market Operator says the power grid is prepared for increased demand, as several states face extreme temperatures this week.
An Aemo spokesperson says:
Each year, Aemo spends months collaborating with governments and industry to prepare Australia’s main energy systems for the hotter summer months.
This wide-ranging collaboration helps maximise available generation and transmission to support in our power systems for times of high demand such as heatwaves.
There are currently sufficient reserves for the power system.
Sarah Collard
Hundreds at Canberra Invasion Day event
Hundreds of people have turned out in support of Invasion Day in Canberra with speakers and organisers urging truth telling and the stamping out of systemic racism in health, justice and education systems.
Several hundred marchers streamed past Parliament House with fists raised high, chanting “Always was, always will be Aboriginal land” past a dozen or so people gathered for the March for Australia rally, many waving Australian flags and dressed in its colours.
A line of federal police separated the two groups as they walked past Parliament House with Guardian Australia seeing one March for Australia attender appearing to shout at a mother with two young children.
Invasion Day speakers demanded change and justice, saying that First Nations communities have protested against colonial violence, dispossession and hate since the beginning of celebrations of 26 January.
Wendy Brookman, a Butchulla woman who was born and raised in Canberra, says that education is the key to ensuring Australia’s violent past is acknowledged.
Education is where this change belongs. You cannot heal a wound you refuse to look at.
I don’t accept the nation that celebrates while First Nations people grieve. I don’t accept being told to get over it while the consequences are still being lived.
Rick Hampson, the father of 36-year-old Dougie Hampson, a Kamilaroi-Dunghutti man who died from two perforated ulcers in Dubbo after being sent home by medical staff, said he was galvanised to appear at the event:
That doctor automatically thought that his problem was drug-related when it wasn’t. Shame. My son died of two perforated ulcers.
He says that today is Invasion Day and called for the date to be moved: “This is the 88th year that we have asked to change this date since 1938. And another year’s gone by and it hasn’t happened.”
He says as a grieving father he has been turned into an activist to demand change and justice.
Douglas Smith
Melbourne Invasion Day march stops at Flinders Street station
The Invasion Day march in Melbourne has stopped at Flinders Street station, where it appears the March for Australia Rally had left.
A wall of police are standing nearby. The organisers have pulled the crowd into a circle at the intersection.
Thousands of protesters are still yet trickling along Swanston Street and are yet to join the head of the march.
As the protesters gather, a man has yelled out, “Happy Australia Day”. Invasion Day protesters told him to leave.
Jordyn Beazley
Sydney Invasion Day march reaches Yabun festival
The thousands of people who joined Sydney’s Invasion Day protest have now reached Victoria park, where the Yabun festival is being held.
The festival, held every year on 26 January, celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Placards seen at Sydney March for Australia in support of neo-Nazi group member
Ariel Bogle
At the March for Australia in Sydney, multiple signs have been spotted calling for a member of the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network, which leaders claim has been disbanded, to be freed.
At the head of the rally as it moved down Cleveland Street in Surry Hills, placards that read “Free Joel Davis” – at least one with a photo of his face – mingled with Australian flags and a sign that read “Albo’s a traitor”.
Joel Davis, 30, was charged in late 2025 over an alleged threatening message targeting the independent federal MP Allegra Spender.
He was taken into custody in Bondi on 20 November by Australian federal police and refused bail.
At the time, without identifying Davis, the AFP said the message allegedly encouraged people to direct “abusive and hateful messages” at the politician after she condemned a protest by the NSN on 8 November outside the NSW parliament. Davis was also present at the event.
Hundreds at March for Australia in Melbourne
About 500 people are at the March for Australia event in Melbourne, reporter Catie McLeod says.
There is a large police presence at areas where the rallies might have clashed according to their planned routes, but not, it seems, along the routes themselves.
Douglas Smith is at the Invasion Day march and says the front of the rally – which is thousands of people strong – has stopped at Swanston Street, ready to turn towards Flinders Street station. He’s spoken to Meriki Onus, the organiser of the Invasion Day rally, who said police had so far done a good job in keeping the rally safe and keeping other protesters away.
Jordyn Beazley
Hecklers and Invasion Day marchers scuffle in Sydney
There was a brief scuffle at the Invasion Day march in Sydney as protesters walked past Central Station.
About four or five people with Australian flags heckled protesters as they walked by.
A handful of people then broke away from the march to chase after them. The police followed.
Anti-immigration protesters clash with Invasion Day marchers in Melbourne
We’re hearing from reporters on the ground that protesters from the March for Australia rally have caught up to the Invasion Day march.
A number of apparent participants in the March for Australia have met the front of the Invasion Day rally, which has just turned down Bourke Street.
Indigenous affairs reporter Douglas Smith, who is reporting from the crowd of the Invasion Day rally, says two people were quickly moved on by police but more have appeared, and are continuing to appear. Douglas says there are clashes between both groups.
The Invasion Day rally follows the same route every year: starting at Parliament House steps then marching down Bourke and Swanston streets to end outside Flinders Street station.
The March for Australia started at Flinders Street at 12pm and marched up Swanston Street, turning into Latrobe Street toward parliament. They were blocked by mounted police officers but have since turned down Lonsdale Street. Our reporter following that rally says riot police are now moving in.
Douglas Smith
Melbourne Invasion Day march begins
Invasion Day protesters have left state parliament and are marching down Bourke Street towards Swanston Street.
Thousands chanting “always was, always will be, Aboriginal land”, and “no pride in genocide”, are walking together as passersby watch on.
Victoria police are on alert, with a nearby March for Australia protest held being held at Flinders Street station.
Andrew Messenger
Greens leader speaks at Brisbane Invasion Day rally
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, held a brief press conference earlier at the Invasion Day rally in Brisbane.
Flanked by fellow Queensland Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne she slammed the federal government for inaction on First Nations issues.
“It’s about time nationally that we had some real moves on truth telling and on treaties and on justice. And unfortunately, we see a government that’s pretty gutless after bungling the voice referendum,” she said.
They seem to have dropped First Nations justice issues.
Waters was also asked about the Australia Marches rally – led by Pauline Hanson – which was due to start nearby.
I think those folk who are at the alternative rally, they’re very angry, and they feel like life’s hard for them. That’s right, life’s hard for everyone, but the way we fix that is not by pointing the finger at other Australians. It’s by pointing the finger at the system that is causing that inequality.
