Jacinta Price has praised the ‘proud and decent Australians’ who took to the streets on Sunday for anti-immigration rallies across the country. 

March for Australia protests took place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart, as well as some regional cities, to protest the country’s record levels of immigration. 

Anthony Albanese condemned the protests as seeking ‘to divide and undermine’ social cohesion. 

However, Price, the Liberal Party Senator for the Northern Territory, praised those who marched on Sunday.   

‘Our national flag represents so much: our history, story, geography, resources, people, deeds, mateship, sacrifices, institutions, traditions, values, unity, loyalty and patriotism,’ she wrote yesterday.

‘Our national flag speaks to the Australian achievement: the weaving together of the Indigenous, British, and broader migrant threads of our story – each bestowing a proud inheritance.

‘Our national flag inspires gratitude: to our forebears for all they did to protect this country and ensure it prospers.

‘Our national flag reminds us of the duty of responsible citizenship: to hand over to the next generation a country better than the one we inherited.’

There was a heavy police presence at the rally locations with several clashes taking place as marches were met with counter-demonstrations.

The government had also warned some protestors had far-right links and would be ‘spreading hate’. 

Price condemned ‘neo-Nazis and racists’ who planned to ‘hijack’ the marches, and said they ‘reject what our flag represents’. 

‘That said, there will be many people carrying our national flag today who embody our national values and are proud and decent Australians,’ she continued.

‘And these Australians are marching because they have legitimate concerns about the impacts of unprecedented mass migration under the Albanese government and ruptures to our social cohesion.’

She also hit out at government warnings against participation in the rallies and questioned why similar statements had not been issued for the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that had taken place across the country in recent months.  

‘Protests must be peaceful,’ she said. ‘But where were their similar warnings for so many pro-Palestinian rallies that have occurred on our soil since the sordid scenes on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on 9 October 2023? 

‘Rallies where protesters have chanted genocidal slogans, displayed Hamas symbols and Nazi swastikas, waved flags of terrorist organisations, carried photographs of Iran’s oppressive dictator – and even burnt the Australian flag.’

‘The double standards must stop,’ Price stated. 

‘If we are to be a united Australia, then threats to our social cohesion must be called out wherever they are present at rallies – not selectively. Go Team Australia!’

One Nation senator Pauline Hanson and federal MP Bob Katter were amongst several opposition politicians who joined the marches. 

Police said six protestors were arrested and officers were injured following clashes in Melbourne with counter-protesters.

Three people were arrested in Adelaide as 15,000 attended the rally while in Brisbane Police estimated around 6,000 protestors were in attendance. 

One man was arrested and charged with two counts of assaulting police, and another man was detained for the breach of the peace.

No arrests were made in Sydney or Hobart.