WATCH: Socialist activist admits kids are being politically GROOMED at anti-Hanson rally

A conversation with one socialist activist at Melbourne’s so-called “kids’ rally” against Pauline Hanson laid the agenda bare.

There was light banter and a few personal jabs. Then she became candid. She was “glad that we’ve got the next generation coming up with left-wing ideas.” This was not an adult simply accompanying children. She was celebrating their political direction. Which may seem harmless, until you hear what she had to say next.

I told her that most of the kids I had spoken to were either there for fun or could not identify a Pauline Hanson policy they opposed. Rather than seeing that as a problem, she welcomed it, saying it “goes to show the age and stage that they’re at”. 

When I pointed out that these children were skipping school to protest an issue they knew little about, she said they “will know more about it” and that “you start at a small level”. When I asked whether they should protest after they understood the issue, her answer was blunt: “No, because then you’ve waited too long.”

There it is.

The goal is not for children to examine competing arguments and then decide. It is to pull them into activism first, with understanding coming later.

That is why the language of political grooming fits. Adults are introducing children to a movement, encouraging them to adopt its ideas, and normalising street activism before many grasp what they are protesting.

This is not isolated. Across Australia, children and teenagers are being drawn into the most divisive protests of the day. Some end up repeating rhetoric that calls for political violence.

That should concern every parent, regardless of politics. Children should be taught to understand arguments, question what they are told, and make up their own minds. They should not be treated as a captive audience for adult political projects.

Organisers will call it youth empowerment. The media will call it idealism. But when adults deliberately place children in demonstrations and tell them they can learn about the issue later, a more accurate description is available.

Political grooming.

The most revealing part of the Melbourne rally was not the placards or the chants. It was an adult casually explaining why children should get involved first and understand it later.

That is the agenda, hiding in plain sight.

Thanks to your support at ProtectAvi.com we were able to stay on the ground, speak to the protesters and have the conversations that exposed what was really happening behind the slogans and placards.

But being able to do this work comes at a cost.

If you think it is important that we keep going into these protests, asking the uncomfortable questions and showing you what is really happening on the ground, please chip in at ProtectAvi.com.