Free speech rallies planned for Australia’s major cities on Sunday are expected to attract massive crowds, while far-left extremist groups are planning counter-protests demanding more government censorship.
The demonstrations, organised by activist group March for Australia, will be held in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, and begin at 12pm in all locations except for the Western Australian capital, where the rally will start at 1pm.
Former federal Labor leader and Independent NSW MP Mark Latham will speak in Sydney along with Libertarian MP John Ruddick, ex-Liberal MP Ross Cameron, Revive Australia founder Brian Marlow, and Father Chris Yates. Speakers for other cities are yet to be announced.
Left-wing extremist groups, including some affiliated with Antifa – a designated domestic terrorist organisation in the US – have also announced rallies in support of the Labor government’s “hate speech” and prohibited hate group laws to be held on the same day.
Trans Queer Solidarity Forever, which has an Antifa-style logo, called the free speech rallies a “Trojan horse for oppression” and is promoting a “No White Australia” counter-protest in Melbourne, along with another far-left group which has previously claimed responsibility for Antifa attacks on colonial statues.
Radical leftists have also organised a “March for a Diverse Australia” protest in Brisbane, and a “Rally Against Racism” in Sydney’s Hyde Park.
SYDNEY SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED!
As free speech is steadily eroded and Australians are told that even questioning mass immigration can place them beyond the bounds of acceptable debate, defending the right to speak freely has never mattered more.
Mark Latham MLC, Independent Member… pic.twitter.com/3NBR4XteBE
— March for Australia (@marchforaus) August 28, 2026
This Sunday. Nationwide. pic.twitter.com/VgtY1mo31Q
— March for Australia (@marchforaus) August 28, 2026
Free speech rally organiser Hugo Lennon, known as Auspill on social media, told Noticer News a large turnout was expected one year on from the first March for Australia rallies, where tens of thousands of patriots took to the streets to protest against mass immigration.
“Across the three rallies since our first march on August 31 last year, Australian politics has increasingly reorganised itself around the issue we put at the centre of national life – ending mass immigration. An issue the establishment wanted kept beyond the bounds of respectable debate is now one of the defining political questions in Australia,” he said.
“A political course correction is here, it can be seen in the extraordinary rise of One Nation and the collapse of trust in the major parties. They know we’re driving it, despite the increasingly desperate attempts by the uniparty to distance itself from decades of mass immigration carried out under their leadership, they’re also targeting the root cause.
“Unable to win the argument, Labor is trying to short-circuit that democratic correction. Its government has tied activists and the broader right up in expanding so called ‘hate-speech’ laws, and has taken the extraordinary measure to ban right wing political parties.”
Mr Lennon said that since the first rallies speakers have been imprisoned, and police have harassed activists and banned them from attending Anzac Day dawn services, as a result of the government seeing the country moving towards the right and “changing the rules before Australians can get there”.
“That is why we are demanding a constitutional referendum to protect freedom of speech. We know our ideas resonate with millions of Australians. A majority want immigration reduced, and an overwhelming majority regard freedom of speech as important,” he said.
“The Australian right is awakening, organising and growing in confidence. We intend to fight for our country in the open, in the streets, in the public square and at the ballot box, and we will not surrender those freedoms because a frightened political establishment finds our ideas dangerous to its hold on power.
“The ANZACs fought for a free Australia, and a free Australia we will have.”
The protest locations are Belmore Park in Sydney, Flinders Street Station steps in Melbourne, Roma Street Parklands in Brisbane, Parliament House Lawns in Canberra, Rundle Park in Adelaide, and Langley Park in Perth.
Header image: Left, crowds at the first March for Australia rally last year (X). Right, far-left protesters in Melbourne last month (supplied).
