A proposed “March for Australia” on August 31 in locations around Australia has opened up an interesting division between Christians who sit on the politically conservative side of the spectrum of opinion.. The march’s main stated aim is “Stop mass immigration.” Two prominent conservative Christians have circulated videos about the march.
Well known Christian author and academic Steven Chavura supports the marches: “Many people asking me why I’m supporting this march. If you watch my videos you’ll see where I’m coming from,” he has posted on Facebook. “I recognise some excellent commentators are against it, and they do have some valid points, but overall I think this march is worth all good people attending.
Here is a transcript of a video posted by Chavura. “We’ve got a march on August the 31st. Okay? No more debates. We’ve just got to get out there and do it. The Australian population is being replaced and it’s being replaced very rapidly, very noticeably, particularly by China and India. You’ve all seen it. You go into Sydney, you go into Melbourne, you go to Victoria, and there are places that are unrecognisable now, and it’s only going to get worse because our politicians are hooked on infinite immigration. Okay? It’s not going to stop unless there is a mass popular movement creating permission for politicians to be able to stop it.
“Remember when John Howard stopped the boats? He stopped the boats and Labor wanted to start them again, and labour found out that it couldn’t because his population was dropping, dropping, dropping. We need the same thing to happen for immigration, and we’ve done it before. We can do it again, and if all it takes for us not to march, being afraid of people calling us racist and Nazis, then it’s over. Australia is over. We have lost. We may not even bother anymore. Just get out there on August the 30 mark and I’ll see you all. We’ve got to march on August the 31st. No more debates.”
Mark Leach of Never Again is Now, a group campaigning against antisemitism, has decided to oppose the marches. Here is a transcript of the video in which he explained that decision. “We’ve had a lot of people reaching out to me asking what my position is and our position at Never Again is. Now is with regard to the August 31st March for Australia. So I initially reached out to the community on X and said, Hey, can anyone get me in touch with the organisers? I’ve got a bunch of questions…. Let me tell you, there’s been almost no communication from the organisers and everything I’ve seen subsequent to that post I made, which had 150,000 views and sparked all kinds of conversations and has been reposted everywhere.
“Everything I saw as I dug into, it seems to me that there is an enormous risk that this [demonstration] is going to be run by co-opted by the hard right?. There’s a whole bunch of racist white Australia type people seeming to jump onto this. The neo-Nazis seem to be wanting to own this, and more troubling to me personally and to our movement is a whole bunch of people who are on board with this seem to be profoundly vilely, antisemitic, repeating all the old tropes of the Jews controlling the world and being part of the problem. So at this stage, I have to say, unless somebody convinces me otherwise, there is no way I or never again is now is going anywhere near this formally or officially. Of course, it’s a free world if you want to go and be part of it and you believe you can make a valid contribution, go for it..
“.. I simply don’t trust what’s going on here with this group. Now, there is another matter that’s of concern about this is the focus is on mass immigration. Now, it’s very clear that number in a number of ways. We have a challenge as a society around immigration. We are a migrant society. I’m a migrant, and apart from the indigenous people who might be watching this, we’re all migrants. To reduce our challenges around mass immigration simply to race, and the idea that we can have somehow a white Australia policy seems to me a reductionist and unhelpful and unrealistic, and in fact, makes it even more difficult for all of us to have a sensible conversation about the kind of Australia we want going forward.
… Now, I’m a firm believer that our English heritage, our political system, the Anglo-American understanding of democracy, of the English understanding of common law, parliamentary system, our constitutional monarchy, these are incredibly significant. And in particular, they’re very significant because they are built on the foundations of the Bible. So whether you are religious or not Torah, the Tanakh, the Hebrew and the Christian scriptures together have formed the foundation of modern Australia. Now, how do we then have a sensible conversation about immigration and multiculturalism? Well, the conversation has to be around the ideas and the practices and the institutions that unite us and enable us to get along with each other. My own view is that we need deep cultural renewal, a confidence in who and what we are as Australians based on our history and our current reality; that migrants coming into this country can be drawn into and assimilated into in such a way that they, over the years, very quickly come to feel the us-ness of Australia.
“That is that when something good happens to any Australian and to Australia as a nation state, they feel like something good’s happened to them. And of course, conversely, when something bad happens to Australia, everybody in this country should feel like something bad has happened to them. And so what we need to do is build these bonds of mutual solidarity, mutual commitment to each other and this sense of us-ness going forward. And let me tell you, that has nothing to do with the amount of melanin in your skin. Your skin colour is irrelevant. What matters is the values, the beliefs, the institutions, the practices, the religious understanding that underpin and develop our sense of us as a national state here in Australia. So that’s the kind of direction we have to go in a race inspired March for Australia to somehow stand against mass immigration, I don’t believe is going to be helpful at all. And so we won’t support it.”
Mark Leach’s group Never Again is Now, formed in the wake of the October 7 massacre aims to have an Australia in which Jewish people are safe, and can assert their identity without being harassed. He will be aware that of the world’s Jews hostoriacally have dwelt in nations where they are a minority, and require a tolerant society in order to live peacefully, an ideal that sadly has often been abrogated. About half the world’s Jews today still live in a diaspora society. So in Australia, Mark Leach clearly supports a tolerantb multi-cultural society. The majority Jewish organisations like the Executive Council of Australian Jewry share this stance.
Steven Chavura would say he has equal regard for Chinese and indian people as he has for Europeans. But on the other hand he does not want many of them to come to Australia – seeking to preserve an Anglo- Celtic culture.
Although I have not seen him use the term, he argues for an “ethno-state” – a country with a dominant ethnicity. Japan is often cited as an example of an ethno-state.
Mark Leach’s position seems to be more complicated, areguing for an Austraila with no discrimination race-baced discrimination for immigration.
But what about Israel? the right of return – immigration is restricted to Jews and while 20 per cent of the current state of Israel’s citizens are Arabs with the right to vote, stand for the Knesset, and are widely represented in professions such as medics. the Jewish majority is keen to stay a majority. For this reason incorporating Arabs living in Gaza and the West Bank / Judea and Samaria as citizens in a one state solution is unpopular among the Jewish population of Israel. They desire an ethno-state, a Jewish state. It is hard to be an ethno-state when the Jewish population might barely be 50 per cnet of the total population from the river to the sea.
But what about Australia? If the Jewish claim for sovereignity is based on ancient occupation, Australia has ancient occupants also – the First Nations’ peoples. Some will debate what sort of nation Israel is – but there is no doubt Australia is a settler colonialist society.
As Leach points out, Australia has inherited good things from Britain, parliamentary democracy, free markets and the rule of law, along with our dire history of colonial conquest. The 31 August March attached our culture to race – desiring an ethnostate.
But what of the good Australians who are Chinese, Arab, or of previously despised European origins? Or the growing number of us, like me who are of mixed race? And that despite the White Australia policy keeping six-year-old me and my twin out – a ruling overturned by lobbying by the conservative SA government.
It is hard to see the rallies scheduled for August 31 as other than racist.
Conservative Baptist pastor Murray Campbell describes immigration as a blessing. He addresses the August 31 rallies: “When your slogan is, ‘Stop Mass Immigration’, you are in fact acting in an anti-Australian way, because Australia is a nation made up from the nations, and we have always been. Who among us isn’t a descendant of migrants? Who among us hasn’t brought our culture into our cities, both good and bad? Have we forgotten sectarianism? It’s more than that, it is this Christian notion of the dignity of every human being, loving your neighbour and welcoming the poor and oppressed, that gave moral impetus to welcoming people to our shores. We do not welcome them because they are like us, but because we are ‘the lucky country’, and, to quote our National Anthem, ‘For those who’ve come across the seas, We’ve boundless plains to share.’”
Campbell takes the question of the rallies to gospel questions. “To allege immigration must stop is to say something about our character and how we view the other. It is building a society based on fear not grace, on protectionism not generosity, on self-actualisation not sacrifice. In that sense, it’s all law and zero gospel. Now, that may not bother the average unbelieving Aussie, but it should surely concern the Christian. What casts out fear? Not hate, it’s love.
“The wonder of the Christian message is that God includes the outsider. God’s only Son gave his life to welcome into God’s Kingdom the very people who do not belong and do not deserve citizenship. God’s Gospel is about grace, kindness, love of neighbour and for the nations.
“While the Gospel and the Parable of the Good Samaritan do not outline an immigration policy, they are doing something deeper and broader. If Jesus died to save people from Morocco and Mexico, and from China and Chad, surely this changes the way we will view these image bearers of God.
Campbell points to an important distinction – generous immigration is not equal to open borders.
“Yesterday I posted a comment about immigration as a blessing, not curse. One of the problems with my interlocutors yesterday is that as soon as I said, immigration is a blessing, they read it as saying I’m advocating for open immigration, even though my very next sentence stated that immigration brings challenges. They can’t seem to distinguish between no borders and generous immigration. But this march isn’t calling for generous immigration, according to many comments I’ve read, they want Muslims, Chinese, and Indians kept out of our country. ”
While the rally slogan is about “mass immigration” the comments of many supporters indicate there are certain groups they want to keep out.
Totally agree with these sentiments