AUSTRALIA – Aussies on Saturday took to the streets to protest, holding anti-government demonstrations, calling out racism and standing in solidarity with Palestine.

New South Wales Police arrested one man for “breach of the peace,” while another person flying a drone over the demonstrations received a warning.

In Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, around 150 Victoria Police officers separated two opposing protest groups near the Parliament House – right-wing supporters and participants of the Indigenous Sovereignty March.

Thousands of people marched through Australia’s most populous city, Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, as part of the “Australia Unites Against Government Corruption” rally.

About 500 people protested racism and discrimination in South Brisbane, Queensland, while some of them chanted pro-Palestinian slogans like “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Around 300 people also gathered across Hobart’s Parliament House in Tasmania for an Indigenous sovereignty rally, with many of them sporting Aboriginal flags and banners.

Separately, several hundred people gathered in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, to protest racism, while a larger crowd marched against government corruption.

The protests followed an attack on an Indigenous camp, Camp Sovereignty, in Melbourne on Aug. 31, when more than 40 men dressed in black attacked the camp following the anti-immigration March for Australia rally that weekend.

New Zealand Protests

About 20,000 people on Saturday held a pro-Palestine demonstration in New Zealand’s biggest city Auckland, urging the government to sanction Israel, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported.

Protesters at the “March for Humanity” also urged for an immediate unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and an immediate end to the blockade and reinstatement of UN agency for Palestinian refugees to allow life-saving aid to safely enter the Palestinian territory.

Demonstrators marched through the streets waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners with slogans such as “Don’t Normalize Genocide” and “Grow a Spine, Stand with Palestine” until the afternoon.

Aotearoa for Palestine spokeswoman Nadine Mortaja earlier said the event would mark the largest march for Palestine in New Zealand’s history.

Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians since October 2023, devastating the enclave and leading to the spread of famine.