My coverage of the August 31 March For Australia was dominated by one controversy.
Three members of the now-disbanded National Socialist Network took the open mic one after another. And it absolutely didn’t matter.
Indeed this group has been hostile towards me, so this position places me on a “queers for Palestine” island, but only to those who would never defend me.
So, rather like when I stood under Captain Cook six years ago, a lone figure from a city of six million opposing the BLM mob of hundreds intent on tearing him down, the backgrounds of the four other men who arrived made no difference to me.
Instead consider the context of the only 140 days since that march:
Indian “Australian” Islamist father and son massacre 15 on Bondi Beach.
Our “conservative” party outlaws speech and strips guns, and bans nascent political parties.
About 200,000 new net immigrants, roughly a new Hobart, are added, but only about 57,000 new homes.
Vegetables sold *by piece* not weight:
And so much more.
So how did “conservative” hysteria over nationalists succeed in preventing or undoing any of the above? It didn’t.
But instead of recognising this, they continue the frantic “right-wing” scramble to see who can most vehemently condemn Nazis in a pursuit to award themselves their “most anti-Nazi” medal. Ironically, some of those most eager to claim this title have often been labelled “Nazi” themselves for refusing a vaccine, or disputing immigration.
Australia’s increasing diversity has escalated rifts to what I see as a cold civil war. Our regular struggle seasons are simply accepted as part of daily life as left-wing Whites fight for right-wing Whites to cease existing first.
With every international event in the Middle East, domestic headlines flash, creating a hysterical panic as we rush to empathise and pick a side.
But their geographic neighbours like Egypt demonstrate their priorities by maintaining a wall with Gaza 20 feet higher than America’s wall with Mexico or Poland’s with Belarus.
One does not have to take a panicked, immediate stand on every foreign issue. An “I don’t care” is a perfectly valid response when faced with the immediacy of our own and fellow neighbours’ internal crises.
As a child of the 80s, old enough to barely remember the fall of the wall, I came into reporting with a hope to produce the journalism I’d want to see myself, revealing details others would miss, challenging any who claim leadership over the right, and none have been immune to my critique.
But Clive James, Richard Morecroft, these names produced reporting for a society of people like them. Strict reporting accountability was for an audience of our people, a concept of common good that isn’t appropriate for our level of diverse civil strife.
Now faced with Australia’s rapid road to venezuelafication, where a full quarter of the nation have fled rather than fight? These details don’t matter in this context.
While I don’t much care for the NSN’s tactics, they did become the only protection for innocent rally-goers when Victoria Police completely abandoned the streets to Antifa.
And under Joel Davis’ guidelines on my reporting I would be scrutinised for not following his strict skin tone policy:
That said, the last time I met Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, her staff cheerfully instructed police to supervise the deletion of my camera roll.
The Davis-Pantone rule of photo-journalism probably offers me more freedom than the current Labor Australian Government.
But to my conclusion ahead of Australia Day, the presence of a few nationalists on stage did not cause your de-housing, unemployment, disenfranchisement, or the ongoing, decade-long decline in living standards.
They hold so little political power that the federal government could outlaw their group with minimal blowback, and they are unloved by every elected party.
When these groups hold enough influence or wield enough control over our lives to force us to pay for vegetables by the piece, then your reaction to them will matter.
When they do, you can wake me up.
Chriscoveries is a Sydney-based independent photo-journalist and livestreamer. You’ll find him at every protest worth covering.
Header image: Former NSN member Joel Davis speaks at the August March for Australia rally in Sydney (Chriscoveries).
