Crikey: Attending a Ben Roberts-Smith rally was a poor use of my limited time on this earth (in photos)
Michael Barnett OAM
Attending a Ben Roberts-Smith rally was a poor use of my limited time on this earth (in photos)
A protester holding a placard at a Ben Roberts-Smith rally in Melbourne (Image: Alex Zucco)Some of Ben Robert Smith’s own SAS colleagues gave evidence against him last year, as part of allegations that ended in his arrest last week for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. It was only in June 2023 that he was found in a civil court to have committed these crimes after suing The Age and Sydney Morning Herald for defamation.
Given the severity of the allegations, must this too become a culture war issue? Destined to be played out on the streets of Melbourne? The blowback to the allegations against him, mostly online and in the media, has been an exercise in the profoundly tasteless.
All that left me feeling rather abysmal on Sunday when I took those familiar steps towards Victoria’s Parliament House for an organised protest in Roberts-Smith’s defence. There is no suggestion that Robert-Smith endorsed or supported the protest, or even knew it was happening.
I walked in glaring sunlight towards a loudspeaker playing AC/DC on the steps of parliament where Australian flags waved and signs declared “WARRIOR NOT A CRIMINAL”.
Roberts-Smith was released on bail last week after a $250,000 surety was paid. He is charged with five counts of the war crime of murder (which Roberts-Smith intends to defend), alleged to have taken place during two tours of Afghanistan.
Sunday’s rally — organised by Matt Trihey, the figurehead of a nationalist activist group called National Workers Alliance, and promoted by March For Australia’s lead organiser, “Bec Freedom” — saw a couple of hundred attendees gather in Melbourne’s CBD. As protests go, this crowd was visibly on the older side, with many individuals recognisable from unrelated right-wing rallies of the past.
Addressing the crowd, Trihey advocated against immigration and for the end of liberal democracy. At previous rallies, he has called for the White Australia Policy to be reinstated and hosted self-described neo-Nazis as speakers. Trihey has repeatedly denied being a neo-Nazi himself.
Crikey identified around a dozen former members of the recently disbanded neo-Nazi organisation, the National Socialist Network, in attendance. One such individual wore a T-shirt bearing a Sonnenrad, a hate symbol. Another rally attendee held his arm up to a TV news camera (in what a court of law would have to decide is or isn’t a banned Nazi salute) and said, “Hail”, while some others yelled at members of the public to “go back to where they came from”.
Not everyone at the rally was on board with these philosophies. Iraq War veteran Michael Marley told Channel 9 he had come to the rally to support Roberts-Smith but that he was not happy after speaking with protest organisers.
“They have a separate agenda, and it’s not one that anyone who served in the Middle East would want to be associated with”, Marley said, standing across Spring Street from the gathering.
A small group of anti-racist activists, including former Animal Justice Party MP for Western Victoria Andy Meddick, had arrived at the steps of parliament hours earlier. Police moved this group north up Spring Street as attendees began gathering for the pro-Roberts-Smith rally.
Separately, a counter-protest was called by a collection of left-wing groups. One such group, Trans Queer Solidarity, posted the following on Instagram:
PROTEST CALLOUT: The fascist and racist ‘national workers alliance’ (run by a business owner) and their supporters, are rallying to defend alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, who got bail for multiple murders, as part of the ‘Australian’ army’s disgraced occupation of Afghanistan. We need to join in protest together to send an opposing message in the CBD.
Around two dozen members of such groups gathered at Carlton Gardens before marching toward the pro-Ben Roberts-Smith rally. Multiple police lines formed on Spring Street to keep the opposing sides apart.
While counter-protesters chanted things like “Nazis off our streets” and “VicPol, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same”, it was visibly apparent that the officers standing in lines outnumbered this small group several times over.
In fact, relative to the massive chatter online and in the news media, neither side drew much attendance at all. Trans Queer Solidarity’s Instagram post had significantly more likes than people who actually turned up. And while an online petition to pardon Roberts-Smith has garnered over 30,000 signatures — with statements rolling in from all manner of politicians, punters, journalists and billionaires, such as Gina Reinhardt and Elon Musk — only a few hundred showed up in Melbourne.
The day before, the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at the Shrine of Remembrance drew a crowd of 55,000, according to RSL Victoria president Mark Schröffel. Later that same day, Polish-German perfume influencer Jeremy Fragrance drew a crowd of around 1,000 in Moonee Ponds to promote the opening of a new perfume store by playing Lebanese wedding drums and spraying cologne on his adoring fans from atop another grown man’s shoulders.
Wouldn’t the arrest of Australia’s most decorated veteran on war crime charges draw crowds to at least rival those of Jeremy Fragrance? Nope.
As the hard rock playing over the loudspeaker set up outside parliament gave way to “Waltzing Matilda” then “Advance Australia Fair”, followed by a recording of a bugle call meant to be played at memorials and military funerals, it all felt like a charade. Was the National Workers Alliance doing all this just to funnel people from the discourse around BRS towards white nationalism? And the counter-protesters, some of whom were promoting a new political party, did they just want to yell at people?
What is this really about? All this righteousness on this one street for, well, probably nothing.
Trihey finished his speech, and the group marched down Bourke Street. Down the street the protest went. At the front of the rally, the usual pack of TV crews and photographers, livestreamers and content creators all tried to make something interesting out of it, myself among them.
Members of the public stood and watched. Some pulled out their phones. After the rally made a left on Swanston Street, a few people confronted them.
Trihey had earlier told the rally they would march to Flinders Street Station. They don’t quite make it there, instead turning on Collins Street and heading back to parliament. One police officer on a bicycle does a pretty solid AC/DC impression, head-banging along to the 50-year-old song playing on the National Workers Alliance’s rather high-quality mobile sound system. We both laugh before he bikes away.
Then the rally ended, and everyone left to do other things.
About the author
Alex Zucco
Contributor
Alex Zucco is a Melbourne-based photojournalist whose work captures the pulse of social, cultural and political life. She grew up in Minneapolis in the US and was inspired to take up journalism after seeing her friends capture the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.