One Nation Victorian Leader Warren Pickering speak at an “Australian Marches” event in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 1, 2026. Tien Nguyen/The Epoch Times
MELBOURNE, Australia—One Nation Victorian Leader Warren Pickering says Australian leaders need to do more to assert the country’s values and national identity.
He made the comments during a speech to the crowd attending the “Australia Marches” event in Melbourne on Nov. 1.
“Australia Marches” is a national campaign opposing mass migration and foreign lobbying organised by The Australian Lobby Group (ALG), which is nearing the end of its 10-week national tour of major capital cities.
At each stop, the group has held rallies and has driven a semi-trailer advertising the ALG’s message.
The organiser estimated thousands of people had attended the rallies so far, with Sydney and Canberra scheduled next.
“It seems many within our society and many within the parliaments of this country are suffering the same sorts of identity crisis that are prevalent within adolescence,” Pickering said.
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“They no longer understand who we are, and there seems to be this constant desire for external validation from an international community.
“They’ve forgotten that it’s okay to be Australian, that it’s okay to be proud of who we are and where we came from. We have the best culture in the world, and it should be celebrated.”
The rally comes as Victorians gear up for the state election this month with the incumbent Labor government trailing in the polls to the Liberal-National opposition and on similar pegging to One Nation, which has surged over the last few months.
Pickering pointed to the Balkan countries, which he said had moved beyond their history of communist rule, but retained a stronger sense of identity.
“They still have … memories of atrocities under the tenets of Marxism and socialism and various other things,” he said.
“Now, those nations, in a modern context, are a lot older than us, and they are arguably in their maturity. So, when you go to these places and you have a look around, they still have some of the monuments from communism. Not to celebrate it [but] more as a memory.
“They still fly their flags with pride above their cities. This is something we need to do. They have reconciled themselves with their past. They have unified their communities.”
One Nation Candidate Says Mass Migration Is Propping Up a ‘Dead Economy’
Mark Nicholson, One Nation’s Northern Metropolitan Region Legislative Council candidate, also attended and said migration was used to keep economic GDP numbers high.
“Mass migration has been used as a way to prop up a basically dead economy … because no one wants to be holding the bag on a recession,” he told The Epoch Times on the sidelines of the rally.
“It was a recession we probably had to have, but instead of dealing with that, being accountable for it, they decided to just prop up the GDP by bringing in more people.
“And unfortunately, that makes you poorer. It makes all of us poorer, makes the country poorer, and it dilutes our culture as well. It’s at the core of a lot of the problems that we’re facing here in this country, and it’s got to end.”
One Nation candidate Mark Nicholson speaks at an “Australia Marches” event in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov. 1, 2026. Tien Nguyen/The Epoch Times
Looking ahead to the November election, Nicholson said One Nation would tackle the current crime wave and restore public safety.
Nicholson also highlighted One Nation’s plan to release Cabinet documents from previous Labor and Liberal governments, dating back several decades, in an effort to restore public trust.
The proposed release would include documents relating to COVID-19 lockdowns, quarantine failures, cost blowouts in the Big Build program and other “integrity scandals.”
“Transparency is the only way. Accountability is the only way,” he said.
