Violent anti-lockdown protests erupt across Australia after harsh restrictions enforced over 179 daily Covid cases
ANTI-LOCKDOWN protests have erupted in Australia after new Covid restrictions are introduced following a further 179 cases.
Tens of thousands of maskless protestors are in Melbourne and Sydney, amid fears the rallies could increase spread of Covid-19.
The protests are a response to new Covid lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
More than half the country’s 25million people have been ordered to stay at home over an outbreak which began in Sydney.
The harsh restrictions have been imposed in response to a small rise in cases, which saw 176 new infections across the country registered on Saturday.
Frenzied crowds shouted “freedom” and anti-vaccine conspiracy slogans swarmed Haymarket city centre from midday on Saturday, just moments after local health chief Jeremy McAnulty declared the area a virus hotspot.
Officers confirmed more than 60 arrests had been made after objects were thrown, including one who allegedly launched a bollard at a policeman, while others were seen punching horses.
Police have now warned that the huge crowds gathered for the protests could see Victoria’s lockdown extended.
The state’s chief health officer Brett Sutton also hit out at protesters, saying the demonstrations would not free Australians from Covid, and warned the pandemic was far from over.
One group of five protesters said that they’d travelled from the epicentre of the new outbreak, just for the rally.
“We don’t give a f*** mate, this lockdown is killing us,” one said.
Mounted police and riot squad officers were seen trying to contain chanting crowds and direct the flow of protesters as traffic backed up along the city’s busiest road.
Dozens of protesters climbed the roof of a Woolworths store and nearby train station, some holding signs reading: “Western Sydney Lives Matter”.
Police told the crowd gathered outside Town Hall about 2.40pm that they need to disperse if they “don’t want to get pepper sprayed”.
One Sydney resident took to Twitter saying she witnessed protesters and police clashing outside her house.
“Stepped outside my house in Chippendale five mins ago… assuming this is an anti-lockdown protest that police diverted from Broadway,” the woman wrote.
NSW Police Minister confirmed 57 people were charged after attending Sydney’s protest and a strike-force has been established to investigate who was in attendance.
“What we saw today was 3,500 very selfish boofheads — people that thought the law didn’t apply to them,” Mr Elliott said.
“If we don’t see a [Covid] spike in the areas these protesters came from in the next week I’ll be very, very surprised,” Elliott said.
“It was just a whole lot of halfwits. There is no doubt in my mind that at least one individual there today had Covid, it is statistically impossible for us not to consider that.
“I’m appealing to all 3,500 people to get tested tomorrow, if not for themselves for the sake of their family and friends.”
More than 1,000 people have also gathered in Melbourne’s CBD on Saturday afternoon – with flares lit outside Victoria’s Parliament House.
Police formed a barrier on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets in the CBD where they held back the crowd chanting “you work for us”.
Mounted officers told the group to disperse with a numbers of protesters being detained.
In Brisbane, hundreds of people turned out the to the city’s botanic gardens refusing to wear masks in an anti-lockdown protest.
A car rally is also planned for locked-down Adelaide, with police warning they will make arrests over unlawful activity.
Stunned Sydneysiders took to social media to describe the protests in their city.
“Protest stretches right down Broadway! Absolutely massive turnout,” one demonstrator said.
Shocked onlookers feared the rally could spell disaster for Sydney’s Delta outbreak.
“The Sydney anti-lockdown protest is a superspreader event in the making.
“if the sheer number of people wasn’t enough, everyone is also screaming at the top of their lungs (without masks) and potentially spreading droplets all over the damn place,” one said.
“These people are protesting the lockdowns. Obviously because they don’t want to be locked down,” said another.
“So they decide to protest, breathing on each other, spreading Covid, causing the positive cases and spread to rise, which therefore extends the lockdown they are protesting?”
Another person added that the most well behaved of Sydney’s protests appeared to be in the centre of the city.
“Actual mostly peaceful anti-lockdown protests going on in the heart of Sydney right now,” the woman wrote to Twitter.
Protesters were chanting “freedom” as they marched through Sydney streets and held placards, the majority not wearing masks or practicing any kind of social distancing.
Some of those attending were also reportedly setting off fireworks and brandishing fire twirling sticks.
A family who travelled from Sydney’s Covid ground-zero to the CBD to be a part of the rally, insisted they “weren’t scared of police”.
Another protester, wearing a face shield, said he wasn’t anti-mask but was anti-lockdown.
“I’m against lockdowns, they’re killing my business,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“That’s why we’re all here.”
Another person said their friend was pepper sprayed by police.
Protesters sung out the Australian national anthem as the near 10,000-strong made their way past Central Station.
New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard urged Sydneysiders to avoid attending the rally on Saturday.
“I live in a democracy and normally I am certainly one who supports people’s right to protest, but I actually think it is really silly,” he said on Saturday.
NSW Police deputy commissioner, Gary Worboys earlier warned a lockdown protest in Sydney would be “disastrous”.
“It’s not really the time for people to come together closely, to exercise somewhat they would think was their democratic right and it may well be,” he said.
“NSW Police are in a position where they will try and work with the organisers and the specific group leaders to make sure that they comply with the public health orders.
“And in fact we don’t get a situation where we end up with a spreading event in Sydney which would, of course, be disastrous”.
“At the present time we’ve got cases going through the roof, and we have people thinking that it’s OK to get out there and possibly be close to each other at a demonstration. I just think that’s a bit silly.”
The protesters in Sydney marched from Victoria Park to Town Hall in the central business district on Saturday.
They broke through a police barrier to continue down George St but were stopped at King St by a heavy police presence, including mounted police and riot officers.
Protesters threw plastic bottles and plants taken from the street at officers, and several arrests have been made.
The protest comes as Covid-19 case numbers in NSW reached another record high since the first wave in 2020.
Some 163 new local cases were reported in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday, up from 136 the day before.
Greater Sydney has been locked down for the past four weeks, with residents only able to leave home with a reasonable excuse.
In Melbourne, hundreds of police officers are stationed in CBD amid concerns it could thwart Victoria’s efforts to emerge from restrictions.
A rally involving a few hundred people could involve flares and the blocking of an inner-city bridge, Chief Commissioner of Police Shane Patton said on Friday.
“Where you have the vast majority of Victorians doing the right thing, sitting at home, it’s such a sense of entitlement to say ‘I can go out and protest just because I disagree’ and potentially breach all of the CHO guidelines and spread the virus,” he told 3AW.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews labelled the idea of protesting lockdown “ridiculous”
“Protest against this virus by staying at home, following the rules and getting out of lockdown,” he said.
Victoria has added a new category to its interstate travel permit system, designating all of NSW a Covid-19 “extreme risk zone”, as the southern state recorded 12 new locally acquired coronavirus cases.
It comes as French anti-riot police fired teargas and water canons on Saturday as clashes broke out during protests in central Paris against a proposed vaccine passport.
The bill would require everyone to have a special virus pass to enter restaurants and other venues and make Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all health care workers.
Legislators in Frances’s senate were debating the bill on Saturday after the lower house of parliament approved it on Friday.
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Footage posted online showed riot police clashing with protesters and firing tear gas into the crowd.
Another video showed police trying to push back demonstrators near the capital’s Gare Saint-Lazare railway station after the protesters pushed over a motorbike carrying several officers.
At another protest called by far-right politicians in west Paris, demonstrators opposed to anti-virus measures carried banners reading “Stop the dictatorship”.