Canberra's Reclaim Australia Rally Was Small on Numbers but Big on Signs

The lawns in front of Parliament House, Canberra, have seen some protests over the years. But Saturday's Reclaim Australia rally, attended by barely 300 people and 30 counter-protesters, won't leave much of an impression.

I arrive at Parliament as the protesters are meant to start marching for Australia's instalment of the PEGIDA World Rally against Islam. PEGIDA (translated from German as Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) was founded in 2014 by guy named Lutz Bachmann. As in Australia anti-Islamic sentiment has quickly increased their size, which they paraded over the weekend in countries around the world. Reclaim Australia headed up our local version.

It's around 1 pm, and the counter-protest should be kicking off too but you wouldn't know it. There are barely a handful of protesters from either group there. I hear drumming and assume some protesters are arriving, but it's actually an Indian wedding reception at Old Parliament House.

One of the few early arrivals is Danny Nalliah, national president of the Rise Up Australia Party. He's sitting in a plastic white chair to the side of the stage, on the edge of the lawn. In a softly spoken voice, the evangelical pastor tells me he wants "to protect Australia from multiculturalism, Islam, foreign ownership of land, imports of fruit and veggies from other countries, [and] to support the farmers."

Born in Sri Lanka, Nalliah acknowledges he is a migrant and initially supported multiculturalism. What's changed? "Multiculturalism has paved the way for people to come in and set up their own enclaves, rather than integrating," he says.

While we're speaking, a man named Luke interrupts us. He introduces himself as a Canberran who isn't involved in any political or anti-Islam groups. He says he wants to support Rise Up Australia because of his strong Christian beliefs and offers to volunteer to the party's candidates at this year's election. Nalliah, who will contest the election, says these sorts of conversations happen "heaps."

When he later takes to the stage, Nalliah transforms into a firebrand speaker. A sign stretches across the stage in front of him reading, "Save Our Country, Save Our Culture". Between the words, a stick figure man throws the ISIS flag and a swastika into a waste bin. Nalliah leads the small crowd in some of the loudest chants of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!" I've ever heard.

It's a perfect Canberra summer's day, and some protesters have come with their own foldout chairs, as though they're here for a picnic. Arabella, 31, has even brought a parasol. She's travelled from Sydney for the rally, dressed as a suffragette. Arabella says women's rights are "being taken away by a totalitarian ideology." Which ideology? I ask. "Islam," she replies quickly. Arabella is concerned that she's seeing "more and more burkinis at the beach." She says that domestic violence is "not exclusive" to Islam, but that it is a particular problem within that religion.

Susan and her daughter Sky have also travelled from Sydney. "I'm here to show that I want to stand up and be counted as a person who votes and loves my country," says Susan, who is Aboriginal and is draped in an Aboriginal flag. She says she isn't concerned about Muslims, but she is concerned about Islam, which she believes is a political ideology masquerading as a religion. Like a number of protesters, Susan says she is particularly worried about female genital mutilation in the Islamic community.

Around 2 pm a twisted version of John Lennon's "Imagine" rises from the crowd, signalling the start of themain protest. "Imagine there's no Islam…" they sing. The anti-racism protesters respond by chanting, "Muslims are welcome, racists aren't." Dean Maloney from the Canberra Anti-Racism Network, tells me his group is there to "counter the scaremongering and racism of Reclaim Australia."

At that point a hoard of Reclaim Australia protesters appears out of nowhere, with countless Australian flags and anti-Islam banners. One sign announces that "rapefugees" aren't welcome in Australia, while others take aim at Malcolm Turnbull and NSW Premier Mike Baird. There's also a Canadian flag, a US flag, and a Norwegian flag. I don't know why.

After acknowledging the traditional owners of the land (seriously), a woman named Bonnie takes the stage to sing the national anthem. Bonnie, who is introduced as a mum of five, has trouble keeping time with the backing track and swears towards the end of the first verse. She manages to get through the second verse without a hint of irony, even the bit about our "boundless plains to share."

The first guest speaker of the rally is lawyer John Bolton, who encourages the crowd to oppose Islam. "Australian culture is better than Islamic culture," he says. "Mosques are a threat to national security," claims Bolton, before calling for "the banishment of face masks in Australia."

Next, self-described Great Aussie Patriot Sherman Burgess takes aim at "traitors" in the federal parliament, who are apparently plotting for a "one world government." Scott Molan, a former member of the army, then urges anti-Islam political parties to work together, to help beat the "fuckwits" who are currently elected.

Blair Cottrell, a bodybuilder and leader in both the United Patriot Front and new Fortitude political party, rails against the whole notion of equality, saying, "You are not born with any rights or privileges. You earn them with your work." The speakers who shout the loudest—like Cottrell and Danny Nalliah—get the biggest reaction from the crowd.

By the late afternoon, I'm not the only one looking bored. The anti-racism protesters have already left. AFP officers mull around without anything really to do. No arrests are made, which isn't a surprise. I've been in Canberra for nearly two years and I can't recall any protests making news because of violence.

Everyone I've spoken to supporting Reclaim Australia has made the point to tell me they are not racist. They say they support migration, so long as everyone adopts the "Australian way of life." I'm not sure how this reasonably calm rhetoric fits in with posters accusing refugees of being rapists.

Around half past four, I put my camera and notepad away and head back to the bus stop, with unoriginal anti-Islam speeches still echoing around Canberra's Parliamentary Zone.

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