Under false flags: why are Australia’s blue and red ensigns and Eureka flag being flown at rightwing rallies?

M ost people brandishing various versions of the Australian flag at protest marches would have “no idea” of their history, says law expert Joe McIntyre. The recent anti-immigration March for Australia included neo-Nazis and others from the far right, intermingled with anti-lockdown activists, sovereign citizens and conspiracy theorists.

Flyers for the event explicitly said “no foreign flags”, but asked people to bring the blue or red ensign, or the Eureka flag.

“The reality is these flags are just symbols they have appropriated,” says McIntyre, an expert in law and “pseudo-law” from the University of South Australia.

He says pseudo-law is the broad umbrella covering sovereign citizens, “freemen of the lands” or “people’s assemblies”, but their false beliefs are also used by anti-vaxx