Melbourne lawmaker and former union leader Bill Shorten told Channel 9 that while he understands there is opposition to the vaccine in some cases and widespread frustration over the lockdowns, he has been informed by his sources that the protests have been dominated by extreme right.
“There is a network of hard-right Nazis … people who just want to cause trouble, baby-men who want to complain about vaccination,” said the former Australian Labor Party leader.
The protesters chanted “fuck the jab” and waved Donald Trump 2020 flags, according to Australian television channel 9.
In justifying the measure, Victorian Treasury Minister TIm Pallas explained today that in half of the construction works that have been inspected, violations of anticovid orders have been detected and therefore posed “a threat to public health in the most dramatic terms ”.
Some 300 people gathered around the Shrine of Remembrance in central Melbourne on Wednesday, according to the first estimates by the authorities, compared to the thousands who took to the streets earlier in the week.
From the first hour, the Police acted preventively against groups of participants by arresting people who did not provide sufficient reasons to justify their presence on the streets, reports the public channel ABC.
Some of the protesters resisted the arrest and caused small altercations with the authorities, reports the media.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is in the United States to attend the UN General Assembly, said he was “very concerned” about the “unacceptable behavior” during the protests and recalled that the measures implemented have been shown to be effective in curbing the spread of the virus.
As of this Thursday, Australia has registered 92,179 cases of COVID-19, 444,338 in the last 28 days, and 1,196 deaths from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.
With information from AFP and EFE