'Unite Against Racism' rally set to go ahead at One Nation campaign launch

So we've spoken to Warren Picking- Pickering, the leader of One Nation in Victoria. He'll be at Crown tomorrow with Pauline Hanson officially launching the One Nation campaign for the state election. There will be another group in attendance as well. It will be the Unite Against Racism group. The chair and one of the organizers of this protest is Julie Montanaro. She is the chair of the Unite Against Racism rally tomorrow. Julie, good afternoon.

Hi, Shane. How are you going?

I'm well. Why protest One Nation tomorrow?

Um, yeah, well, well, given Pauline and, um, Warren are speaking at the event, you know, launching that Victoria campaign and policy launch, we wanna be there and make it clear that, you know, that kind of racism and policy is absolutely not welcome here, nah, every time she tries to campaign, um, and spread that kind of racist rhetoric, you know, scapegoating migrants, scapegoating refugees. For a lot of the crises that we're seeing, you know, with housing and the cost of living, so absolutely, you know, it's not migrants and refugees to blame. And actually, you know, it's her scapegoating that we actually, uh, have to oppose out on the streets.

So what policy do you see that equates to racism that One Nation could hand down tomorrow?

Well, I think it's, you know, the ongoing things that she has been saying about she's in support of mass deportation. She thinks that... I think she's been s- you know, echoing the rhetoric that Labor has said about international students being the problem for the housing crisis, and that's just, um, certainly not the case.

It, it's fair to say, though, that, I mean, there are a lot of people out there who don't wanna see significant migration to Australia. There are a number of countries around the world that restrict migration. Whether, whether you agree with that or not, just not wanting to see high levels of migration surely doesn't equate to someone being racist.

But I think you can also look to, you know, um, Pauline's past of actually being extremely racist. And I think, um, you know, controlling, uh, immigration in a country that has a very racist past that w- who gets to actually determine who is, you know, a legal or good migrant that gets to come here, I think that's not up to actually, you know, Hanson's kind of, um, you know, determining in that.

I, I, I, I certainly don't agree with all of Pauline Hanson's rhetoric, but I also agree with her right to say it, and, and you certainly have the right to protest. But does not a, a, a party that seems to be having cut through with the Victorian electorate also have that freedom to, to launch their campaign without interruption at Crown tomorrow?

Um, I think it's, you know, we actually don't think it's right to mainstream these kind of ideas. That's kind of why we wanna be out in the streets. And not to say that, um, you know, fighting or just, yeah, opposing One Nation is just gonna come down to the voting booth. But we wanna have an actual physical presence of, you know, migrants, refugees, any people of color, any people that oppose, um, you know, her kind of policies to show that, you know, that's, that's not what we approve of, and that's not