The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, and the Australian Human Rights Commission have jointly criticised comments by Stuart Bonds, who leads One Nation’s upper house ticket in NSW.
Comments At Anti-Immigration Rally
Bonds delivered his incendiary remarks during a rally held in Sydney's CBD on Sunday, attended by at least several hundred people displaying Australian flags. He stated: 'Make no mistake, we are being demographically replaced inside our own nation,' linking concerns about abortion rates across Europe, the US and Australia.
'If we don’t support Australian mothers having Australian children, we are going to pay for other cultures’ children to be brought up in our lands,' he said. He warned that such trends would become irreversible if not addressed.
Bonds defined national identity as comprising shared culture, border, flag, language and dominant religion. He asserted that after 240 years of settlement, Australians should not apologise for their presence on land they describe as stolen, yet claimed immigrants arriving recently were 'not as Australian' as native-born citizens. He specifically rejected equating individuals like the Bondi shooters with full Australian belonging.
Official Reactions
The race discrimination commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman, stated that comments suggesting some Australians are superior to others sow division and hate. In a statement released Monday, he said: 'The idea that migrants can never truly be Australian ignores both our history and our shared future.'
'Australia has always been shaped by successive generations of people who came here from around the world and helped build the nation we know today,' Sivaraman added. 'It has the longest continuous culture in the world.'
He warned against reducing complex societal challenges to narratives blaming migrants alone, noting such views risk fueling exclusion and racism. He affirmed that migrants are not separate from Australia’s story—they are central to it.
Federal Response
The federal minister for multicultural affairs, Anne Aly, responded directly: 'Australians with migrant backgrounds are not replacing Australians — they simply are Australians.' She said questioning someone's right to belong based on race or ancestry is not an immigration debate but a divisive issue that contradicts national values.
'Questioning someone’s right to belong because of their race or ancestry is not a debate about immigration,' she stated. 'It’s divisive, dangerous and goes against everything we stand for as Australians.'
Political Context
Bonds will be the first candidate on One Nation’s NSW upper house ticket. On current polling, he is likely to win in March’s state election. Premier Minns questioned which government portfolios Bonds would hold if his party won power, suggesting potential policy shifts: 'Trade, education, Treasury? I mean, what job will this bloke have in a Coalition-One Nation government?'
Minns also asked whether voters should expect distancing from such views within any future coalition government.
The federal government has not yet issued an official statement on the matter beyond Aly's remarks. The Coalition’s spokesperson on multiculturalism, Mark Coure, and One Nation’s NSW headquarters have been contacted for comment but no public response was available at time of reporting.