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January 26, 2026 — 6:45pm
Far-right protesters took up the chant of an officially disbanded neo-Nazi group and demanded the release of one of its leaders from jail during an Australia Day protest in Sydney that claimed to “take back the streets”.
The March for Australia movement railed against “mass immigration” as well as the Invasion Day rally being held in the CBD, which was led by Indigenous Australians and attended by an estimated 10,000 people.
Parts of the March for Australia crowd, which police said was about 2000 people, chanted “white man, fight back” as they proceeded from Prince Alfred Park to Moore Park in inner-city Sydney.
Large segments also called to “free Joel Davis,” referring to the senior National Socialist Network leader who remains in jail after last year ordering followers to “rhetorically rape” Wentworth MP Allegra Spender.
The NSN, which rallied outside NSW Parliament House in November, officially disbanded this month, facing a designation as hate group under new federal legislation. NSW Police had also issued senior members with public safety orders banning them from entering the city on Australia Day.
But the NSN cast a long shadow over Monday’s march. Multiple former NSN members were present, according to researchers working with the anti-fascist White Rose Society.
Police arrested a 31-year-old man who allegedly made antisemitic remarks at open mic section of the event. Wearing a black shirt with a Celtic cross, the man voiced his support for neo-Nazis Thomas Sewell and Davis, and also criticised new hate speech laws passed following the Bondi terror attack.
“We will allege that the language that was used during this open mic session breached, well and truly, the line of free speech to incite hatred towards another group of the community,” Assistant Police Commissioner Brett McFadden said.
Riot squad police also identified one former NSN member who had travelled from northern Queensland, and issued a public safety order on the spot. The man was escorted to Central Station and moved on without incident.
At one point in the march, a couple walking along the street who began booing at protesters were pushed inside a restaurant for their apparent protection. Protesters responded with anti-immigration chants and surged toward them before police quickly formed a barrier between the couple and the crowd.
Mark Irving, an attendee who wore a “F--- Socialism” singlet and a Make Albanese Go Away cap, said before the march that 99 per cent of the crowd would reject neo-Nazis.
“I’m looking to be part of a movement … that gives us a chance to reclaim our past,” Irving said. “The country is a far cry from the Australia I was born into.”
Desiree Gawronski, who wore a Eureka Stockade T-shirt and an umbrella-shaped hat with an Australian flag design, said she had no problem with immigrants as Australia was “built on immigration”. She said she wanted newcomers to “respect our culture”, declaring “the country I grew up in is no longer here”.
Machine-printed yellow placards peppered throughout the crowd referred to issues including gas rights, housing and digital IDs. But immigration remained the major theme. Other signs said “Stop the white replacement” and called for mass deportation.
Wearing a metal “crusader” helmet, Allan Rice told the Herald he could trace his lineage back 900 years. Although not a Christian, he called for immigration to be restricted to those with “Christian values”.
One speaker, known as Viscount, called for the crowd to be proud of their forebears, who “slew the saracens [Muslims] at Jerusalem”. Toward the end of a speech filled with references to war, he said: “Some will think that this rhetoric sounds somewhat violent, but the fact is, the violence is already here.”
Libertarian politicians used their speeches to attack Labor leaders’ stances on immigration and free speech. Cumberland City Council’s Steve Christou led a chant of “send them back”, accusing the Albanese government of letting in immigrants who did not share the country’s values.
“It’s not hate speech Albo when I say ‘F--- Albo’,” Christou said, to uproar from the crowd.
John Ruddick, the Libertarian NSW upper house member, targeted Premier Chris Minns, whose government wants to pass new laws banning displays of support for Nazi ideology as well as phrases such as “globalise the intifada”, which he has branded antisemitic.
“They can now just deem a group to be a hate group, and then they just completely shut it down,” Ruddick said. “This is East Germany.”
March organiser Jesse Stewart, who began proceedings with an acknowledgment of Anglo-Celtic Christians, slammed Indigenous Australians taking part in an Invasion Day protest in the CBD.
“They hate you, they hate your culture, they hate your way of life, and they hate your ancestors,” Stewart said.
The peaceful but angry crowd at the Invasion Day rally at Hyde Park – estimated by police to have reached 10,000 people – directed their ire towards One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, the federal government and the NSW premier’s new protest crackdowns. Speakers called for an end to Indigenous deaths in custody, more land rights, and for young people to “mobilise to fight Pauline”.
Protest organiser Paul Silva told the crowd to “abolish the date and abolish the state”. Silva said: “To the nation that celebrates invasion, that builds comfort on graves and calls it pride, f--- you, f--- you Australia”.
Crowd members wore “Grand Theft Australia” T-shirts and gathered in front of a banner that read “Australia is a crime scene.”
Gumbaynggir, Bundjalung and Dunghutti woman Lizzie Jarrett told the Herald that Invasion Day rallies were not divisive, as some people thought.
“We’re trying to bring truth to a country that we can all be proud of together,” Jarrett said. “It’s our duty to come together, to commemorate the fallen and to celebrate the survival of those who come after us”.
By her side stood her 16-year-old son William, whom she has brought to Invasion Day rallies since he was born. William wore a T-shirt printed with a picture of Jai Kalani Wright, another 16-year-old boy, who was killed in Alexandria in 2023 by a police officer later convicted of dangerous driving occasioning death.
Palestinian flags could be seen throughout the crowd. Protester Marlene Obeid said she carried one not to take away from Indigenous issues, but because in her view the two peoples had parallel causes.
“These issues are one – the displacement, the colonisation, the genocide of peoples,” she said.
Calls to no longer celebrate Australia Day on January 26, to avoid the anniversary of European colonisation, featured on T-shirts and signs throughout the rally.
But new research shows the number of people supporting the current date has surged from 47 per cent in January 2023 to 68 per cent this year.
At Circular Quay, sisters Shannon, Atlanta, Sheridan and Tennessee Knowles wore bikini tops and streamers in the colours of the Australian flag, after making a two-hour trip from Newcastle.
“We’re very proud to be Australian,” Atlanta said, “and we want to make sure everyone else knows.”
International tourists had lined up for photographs with the sisters since earlier in the morning. “I’m going to need Botox, I’m smiling that much,” Shannon said.
Sydneysiders spending their Australia Day at Manly found themselves stuck on the sand for a few hours, with shark alarms sounding twice during the morning.
John Ratcliffe and his daughter Asya, 7, got in one wave before the second alarm sounded.“We’re hoping to get another few waves then spend time with family,” Ratcliffe said.
“While I will spend today talking to my daughter about how lucky we are to live here, I will also explain to her that not everyone feels like celebrating today, and would feel more comfortable on another date.”
At a Parramatta citizenship ceremony, Elizabeth Benny and Simon Varghese took their oath.
“I feel like there is a future here,” Benny said. The couple’s aspirations are like “any other family”, she said. “We want to have a house, grow our family, and so on. I could see kids growing here.”
The Australians at Varghese’s first workplace were “so welcoming” that something clicked for him, the construction manager said.
“They were so interested to know about you, they were so interested to understand your opinion. That really sparked something in me, that, yeah, this is a really nice place.”
With Kayla Olaya, Daniel Lo Surdo, Anthony Segaert, Aidan Elwig Pollock
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