Matt Canavan backs Canberra rally calling for deportations

Matt Canavan addressed an anti-immigration rally outside Parliament House in Canberra, telling the crowd Australia needed better standards on migration and lower numbers. He spoke at the March on Canberra to end mass immigration after Pauline Hanson had already fronted hundreds of people at the same site.

Canberra rally crowd

Pauline Hanson told the rally she was not against migration, but wanted the government to be more selective about who comes to Australia. She said, "Why hasn’t the [Anthony] Albanese government done anything about mass migration that’s coming into Australia, we need to reduce the numbers … We have to do it in a managed way; you have to bring in the right people who want to assimilate."

Canavan then pushed the crowd in a more direct direction. He said, "We’ve just had a little bit too much talk of diversity. We’re all different … And that’s great, but we now just talk all about that and we don’t talk enough about unifying, about [how] we’re one nation."

Canavan and migration

The Nationals leader and deputy leader of the federal Coalition also said, "We’re going to check who’s coming. This country’s going to have better standards, and we’re going to bring the numbers down. And yes, if you don’t share our values, you’re getting deported."

That line followed his claim that the Albanese government had spent too much time pursuing a global socialist agenda through net zero emissions, and that it was backing foreign jobs over domestic jobs by seeking to secure oil supplies from overseas. He said, "They’re not putting our nation’s interest first, you can see that right now. They’re going to other countries to get oil. Yet the prime minister won’t meet with the Queensland premier to produce oil here. Why are we supporting foreign oil and foreign jobs and not supporting domestic oil and domestic jobs? Why are we doing that?"

March for Australia event

The rally was organised by March for Australia campaigner Scott Challen. It came after the Australian Bureau of Statistics rejected the mass migration argument in August and called out misuse of overseas arrivals data to advance the claim.

Canavan had previously condemned Hanson for comments against Muslim Australians, a contrast that sat beside his appearance at the Canberra rally. The event left him aligned with a campaign calling for the end of mass migration, while Hanson told attendees she wanted the government to reduce the numbers in a managed way.