The so-called ‘March for Australia’ echoed the Cronulla race riots – and not by accident. Are we seeing history repeating, or the start of something worse?

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The text messages circulating around Sydney’s Sutherland shire in early December 2005 explained precisely the purpose of the gathering. “Just a reminder that Cronulla’s 1st wog bashing day is still on this Sunday,” one read. “Chinks bashing day is on the 27th and the Jews are booked in for early January.”

On Sunday 11 December, more than 5,000 people, mostly young men, swarmed Cronulla beach. They wore Australian flags as capes, they had drawn the Eureka flag on their bodies. They were drinking alcohol and they were chanting – and they were beating up anyone who wasn’t white.