The Daily Mail's report on last weekend's March for Australia rally quoted in full an offensive mock Welcome to Country delivered by comedian Lisa Jane Spencer and embedded a video of her speech, despite describing it as a "cruel" mockery of Aboriginal culture.
Rally draws less media attention
The rally drew significantly less media attention than previous anti-immigration protests under the same banner, when politicians including Pauline Hanson and Bob Katter were speakers. Organisers pivoted from campaigning against "mass immigration" to arguments over "free speech", including calling for the ban of the White Australia party, formerly the National Socialist Network (NSN), to be overturned.
March for Australia's ties to white nationalist ideas have been widely reported, including in an ABC investigation. This time, organisers' support for neo-Nazis was more blatant. The neo-Nazi activist Thomas Sewell was described on its social media page as a "political prisoner", and dozens of NSN members were reportedly in attendance.
Daily Mail coverage attracts supportive comments
News24, which last year ran columns describing the protests as a "show of defiance" from people with "genuine concerns" who "deserve to be heard", fell mute. One outlet that did give the protesters a run was the Daily Mail. Its report described "deplorable scenes" in Melbourne, but quoted in full Spencer's offensive mock Welcome to Country and embedded a video of her speech.
The article was uploaded to the Daily Mail's Facebook page, attracting hundreds of comments, many supportive of the protest, before the post was deleted.
Spencer's background and past criticism
Spencer, who received widespread criticism earlier this year for a satirical video in which she depicted a fictional Aboriginal character, "Aunty Lisa", sniffing petrol, has only relatively recently made a name for herself as a darling of the right. Before becoming a comedian, she was a musician performing under the name Aeora, receiving a number of plays on Triple J unearthed, and had a stint attempting to make it as a Byron Bay content creator before pivoting to satire.
In 2017 she told oneofone, a charity championing women and non-binary people in music, that the industry still had a "heap" of privilege. "I acknowledge I'm a white cis straight female … But the industry is still not representative of trans people, queer people, people of colour," she said. A month ago, she depicted herself in a joke video as a Muslim woman running an NDIS scam.
