I agree with Dennis Edwards (Wangaratta Chronicle letters, 5 September) that the Victorian Police Minister Anthony Carbines should not have described protesters at the March for Australia Melbourne rally held on 31 August 2025 as "unhinged grubs".

However, I will provide the following insights into Thomas Sewell who addressed the protesters on the steps of parliament and who received an enthusiastic reception.

Thomas Sewell is the Hitler venerating leader of the National Socialist Network (NSN).

NSN is a paramilitary organisation whose hate speech has been outlawed.

I have heard this group described as neo Nazis but I understand that there is nothing new about them.

How they dress, their violent street tactics, the way they openly admire Adolf Hitler, call themselves his followers, talk of racial purity (white Australians are "thoroughbreds") and deny the Holocaust.

At 92 years old, Mr Edwards would have been a 12 year old boy at the end of World War 2.

He would recall the world's shock at learning of the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

It is worth revisiting history and understanding the circumstances in which they came to power.

Jane Baker, Wangaratta

An incredible story of patriotism at anti-immigration march

Regarding the letter to the editor from Dennis Edwards (Wangaratta Chronicle, 5 September).

What an effort you and your family made going to the March for Australia on mass migration.

It is so encouraging that many families like yours made the effort.

Who would have ever thought that we average Australians would be reduced to attending marches simply to fight for our values and once beautiful free country.

So sad we are living in a world we don't recognise anymore.

Pat Cushway, Wangaratta

Decades in the making - Celebration of Treaty

We are a nation which rightly celebrates our cultural diversity built on 60,000 years of cultural history, and more recent arrivals to our shores.

I attended secondary school in Sunshine with a student population drawn from 43 nations, primarily post-World War 2 migrants.

I had the valuable opportunity to encounter significant cultural diversity at that stage of my life.

My life has been continued to be enriched by cultural diversity and continues to grow as I meet with people from First Nations cultures in Australia and more recently in Canada.

After decades of leadership and humility from First Nations people, the very first Treaty Bill in our nation’s history will be introduced into the Victorian Parliament.

This is something to celebrate.

Treaty is all about self-determination – because when it comes to Aboriginal communities, cultures, and lands, the experts have always been Aboriginal people.

Russell Sully, Wangaratta South