Modi's Melbourne community event draws an anti immigration protest marching on Marvel Stadium

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to address a Marvel Stadium crowd in Melbourne on Thursday for the Melbourne Meets Modi community reception, with about 26,000 people registered and organisers expecting a turnout near 30,000. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan are both listed to appear alongside him.

Outside, an anti mass migration protest is set to march on the venue.

Hugo Lennon and Auspill are behind the 2.30pm march

The protest was organised by Hugo Lennon, who posts as "Auspill" under the handle @aus_pill and runs the site auspill.com. Lennon is known online for provocative "AUSSIE" public art and poster campaigns. He called the gathering for 2.30pm on Thursday, starting outside the Department of Home Affairs in Docklands before marching the short distance to Marvel Stadium.

Lennon said the protest would stay peaceful. "We vow to be peaceful, but loud," he wrote on X, adding that he expected a heavy police presence. He described the event as an "anti India protest" and told supporters, "this is our continent."

Lennon's case rests on housing, wages and a deepening India relationship

Lennon framed the march as opposition to Canberra's migration and foreign policy, not to the community inside the stadium. He argued the government's push for closer ties with India, built on what officials call "people to people" links, means higher migration, and pointed to Australia's housing crisis, infrastructure strain and stagnant wages.

"We reject the idea that Australia should continually deepen this relationship or pursue further mass immigration," he wrote. "Australians never wanted this."

He said India gained billions in remittances and a diaspora of around one million Indian born residents in Australia while pursuing its own "strategic autonomy" abroad. One News hasn't independently verified those figures.

A separate group, the Alliance Against Islamophobia, said it would also protest outside the event over the treatment of minorities in India.

Paying tribute to Charlie Kirk as a "fallen comrade"

Lennon's politics sit on the activist right. When the American conservative Charlie Kirk was shot dead at Utah Valley University in September 2025, aged 31, Lennon posted a tribute. He said he had once debated Kirk and had disagreed with him on some points, yet praised his "courage to keep showing up, even in hostile arenas" and credited him with bringing "so many hearts and minds to the right."

"I once opposed him in argument. Today, I mourn him as a fallen comrade in the greater fight," Lennon wrote, calling on supporters to carry on Kirk's mission.

Albanese and Jacinta Allan shared the platform with Modi

The reception was billed as a celebration of the Australia and India partnership, with trade, defence and critical minerals high on Modi's agenda. Albanese and Allan appearing at the diaspora rally, while the march outside targets the migration settings their governments oversee, puts the two sides of the debate within a few hundred metres of each other.

Jacinta Allan greeted Modi at the airport and courted the Indian vote

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan put herself at the centre of the visit. She greeted Modi when he landed in Melbourne on Wednesday night, posting a photo with the Indian leader and writing, "Welcome to Victoria, Prime Minister."

Allan and federal Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil met Modi on arrival, and Allan later secured a private one on one meeting with him as well as a spot on stage at Marvel Stadium, The Australian reported.

Her prominence tracks Labor's push for Victoria's Indian-Australian community, the largest in the country with more than 370,000 residents of Indian ancestry. Former Labor strategist Kosmos Samaras told the paper that Modi's brand was now "strongly aligned with Labor," and that in these communities Labor's two party preferred vote sat above 60%, and above 70% against One Nation.

Opposition figures Angus Taylor and Jess Wilson were expected at the stadium but in the audience, not on stage, and were due to meet Modi separately on Friday.

Lennon posted an early morning clip claiming an "unwelcome" for Modi

Hours before the march, Lennon posted an 11 second video he captioned as giving "India's prime minister an Aussie (un)welcome." The clip, filmed indoors, had drawn more than 260,000 views by Thursday morning. One News hasn't verified where it was filmed or what it shows, and there's no suggestion Lennon reached the Prime Minister.

Police warned a young person over a Facebook comment days earlier

In a separate matter, the Australian Federal Police confirmed it had issued a formal warning to a young person over a threat posted as a comment on Facebook under a post promoting the event.

"Following an assessment of the matter, the young person was issued a formal warning. There is no current or impending risk to the community," an AFP spokesperson said.

The warning was issued on 3 July. Police haven't linked the comment to the protest or its organisers.

Modi's Melbourne stop is the centrepiece of a visit both governments have used to talk up trade and security ties, even as the crowd inside Marvel Stadium and the march outside show how sharply Australians are split over migration.