A complaint by government backbencher George Christensen that protesters opposed to a Reclaim Australia rally sought to incite racial hatred has been dismissed by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Mr Christensen - the only federal Coalition MP to speak at a Reclaim Australia rally - alleged that a group called Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance in   April burnt three Australian flags "which, as an Australian, I find to be particularly racist behaviour". 
The Queensland politician argued that the counter-protest breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, in that the flag-burning targeted Australians of European descent and was intended to cause offence, insult and humiliation, and dissuade people from joining the rally.
In a letter to the commission, Mr Christensen pre-empted any suggestion the Reclaim Australia rally was racist, saying the movement did not target individuals nor any particular racial group. "As we have seen, Islamic extremists ... are not represented by a single race, nor can radical Islam be considered only a religion as it is ideological and as much a political movement as it is a religion," he wrote.
In response, one of the commission's case officers acknowledged Mr Christensen's concerns, but said: "It is unclear how it could be argued that the burning of the Australian flag was done because of your race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, or that of other Australians of European descent more broadly." No action was taken.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane last week warned of "organised racist movements" such as Reclaim Australia causing disharmony and urged anyone offended to "seek the protection of laws that prohibit such hatred".
"At these rallies, far-right, racial-supremacist agitators have been visibly present," Dr Soutphommasane told an audience at Australian National University. "People with xenophobic political agendas have also been present. Pictures and footage of the rallies clearly show that people sporting Nazi tattoos and other insignia have been openly parading their extremist sympathies." He said the "corrupted national pride" that emerged during the Cronulla riots had returned in "a strain of patriotic expression that is tainted with the stain of aggressive nationalism"."It is time that we reclaim patriotism," he said.