This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

At a sodden Belmore Park in central Sydney on Sunday a cluster of red flags bearing the face of Che Guevara blustered among the 7000-odd people at a rally made up of families, children, students, academics and anarchists.



A man dressed in a nappy, wearing a Tony Abbott mask with hearts and dollar signs drawn over his nipples, posed for cameras. “Our country has been Hijacked by terrorists!” read one placard, daubed in mugshots of the Coalition front bench. “Abbott is a weapon of mass destruction,” read another.



This March in March was one of many around Australia at the weekend which drew thousands who had come to make their voices heard on the most pressing issues of the day.



Michelle Glaznieks and her son Henry, from Ashbury in the inner west, were out in protest for the first time since the 2003 Iraq invasion.



Under a placard of “Winter is Coming”, Glaznieks spoke of her concerns for the NDIS scheme under the new government. “I’m worried about it being taken away, the goalposts being moved again for our disabled son,” she said. “We’ll be caring for him the rest of our lives and we’d like to know that what the NDIS has promised will be delivered.”



Young and old and everything in between: some of the protesters in Melbourne. Photograph: Genevieve Gannon/AAP

Kelly Pervan, at her first protest, had brought her seven-month-old daughter, Isla. “I guess what’s brought us out today is a massive culmination of things. Our daughter’s future education, her health system, making sure that we’re protecting the most vulnerable people in Australia,” she said.



Did it matter that there was no crystalised perspective or demand holding people together?



“Lots of people support a lot of things that are represented here today, so I think it’s important that everything is included,” Kelly said.



And as Kaveh Akbari, a refugee speaking on Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers, handed the microphone over to Billy Bragg, the amalgamation of social issues was made all the more stark.



Bragg was incensed at comments from Gina Rinehart – the mere mention of her name eliciting loud boos – made earlier in month urging Australia to adopt the spirit of Thatcher.



Demonising the welfare state was the “most pernicious” of all Thatcher’s policies, Bragg said, launching into an impassioned defence of the NHS. “I send this song out to Gina Rinehart and those people who think that everyone on welfare is somehow cheating them.” And he then delivered a rendition of To Have and To Have Not.



All across Australia, tens of thousands of people turned out to issue what organisers called a “statement of no confidence” in the new Abbott government.



There appeared to be no media spokesperson co-ordinating responses to questions, but photos of rallies around the country, posted nearly every second on Twitter, suggested high turnouts.



‘’It’s not about anything in particular that [Abbott’s] done – it’s about what he represents.’’ Protesters in Melbourne. Photograph: Genevieve Gannon/AAP

In Melbourne, thousands took to the streets in what appeared to be the largest of all the rallies. In Alice Springs about 450 turned up to hear Indigenous leader Barbara Shaw cry: “What I see here today is black and white unite to fight.”



Rallies were held in Perth, in the Blue Mountains, in Adelaide, in Hobart – pictures suggesting large turnouts with many participants saying it was the largest protest they had seen in their respective towns for years.



Back in Sydney and the “Fuck Tony Abbott” Tshirts, worn by many attendees, had sold out although there were some badges left.



Patrick Langosch, a member of Socialist Alternative, which is selling the slogans, thinks they “sum up the frustration that people here have”.



“People can see that Tony Abbott is fighting a class war for the rich and powerful. The T-shirt really expresses that. It’s not about anything in particular that he’s done – it’s about what he represents.”



At a press conference in Sydney just down the road, Abbott was celebrating a Liberal state victory in Tasmania last night. When asked for his thoughts on the rallies, he protested ignorance: “My understanding is that the only big rally in Sydney is the St Patrick’s Day parade.



“I wish all the St Patrick’s Day revellers well, and if their parade is rained on, there’s always some Guinness available somewhere around the city.”