Melbourne's protest temperature cools down
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- 11 minutes ago
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After a violent March for Australia, Saturday's protests were largely peaceful, Afia Khan, Daniel Allen and Matthew Parkhill report.
Following the explosive March for Australia on the 31st of August, which saw protestors clash in Melbourne's streets, Police have kept opposing groups at distance in largely peaceful demonstrations midday today.
Demonstrators at a joint 'Save Australia' and Anti-Government Corruption protest waved Australian flags on the steps of Victorian Parliament House. Three city blocks away at the Flinders and Swanston St intersection, a large crowd listened as local First Nations' elders spoke on the attack at Camp Sovereignty nearly two weeks ago.
Speakers at the joint 'Save Australia' protest praised alleged police killer Desi Freeman, telling the crowd not to believe mainstream news or the government.
But demonstrations were largely peaceful, with police directing the two crowds away from each other to avoid conflict. Public Order Response Teams and mounted officers created spaced-out police lines to separate the two groups where they met, ensuring the chaos of the 31st of August March for Australia did not repeat. Crowd numbers at the 'Save Australia' demonstration were noticeably down, only just filling out the Spring and Bourke St intersection. The protest was due to begin at 12pm, but speeches were delayed until 12:30pm to allow more time for protestors to arrive past police lines.
At Flinders St, local elders began speeches at 11am to a sea of Palestine, pride and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. Speeches largely focused on the Camp Sovereignty attack nearly two weeks prior, when National Socialist Network leader Thomas Sewell allegedly led a group to extinguish the Sacred Fire protest.
Speakers pledged the fire, which symbolises an eternal protest against the colonisation of Australia, will continue to burn. Sewell, a prominent Neo-Nazi, awaits charges for the melee at Camp Sovereignty alongside nine others present at the melee.
Sewell was ordered yesterday by the Victorian Magistrates' Court to complete 200 hours of community service for intimidating a police officer, following comments he made on a podcast in which he threatened to reveal the officer's address and identity after a clash with police at an asylum seeker rally in October last year.
Notably, NSN members were not present today or made themselves known. Members opt to wear black, brandishing anti-immigration signs and slogans.
Police numbers were larger than those of the 31st of August, with teams spread out across the CBD. Clashes at the March for Australia often took place in laneways and alleys off the protest route where police couldn't reach.
Superintendent Troy Papworth told ABC News earlier in the week that more officers would be deployed in the CBD to avoid similar violence.
Speakers on the steps of Parliament House repeated conspiracy theories on the COVID mRNA vaccines and told the crowd to fight back against a 'new world order' takeover of Australia. After speeches concluded around 1:30pm, the crowd began to move down Bourke St and onto Swanston St, towards Flinders St Station.
Meanwhile, the crowd for "Rally against Racism" and "Sovereignty never Ceded" had reached Victoria St and arrived behind the bunch of Australian flags, stopping at police lines on Spring St.
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