1/I was disturbed when QLD climate protests were criminalised & when Dutton wanted (& got, to my knowledge) the power to deploy troops in situations of domestic unrest (i.e. protests). He's never exercised this power but I gather that's bc the army still has the right to refuse.
2/I have protested on a number of issues, including most recently the treatment of asylum seekers under Dutton. I travelled into the city on most Fridays to sit outside the Home Affairs office with a sign. I can't do that any more due to COVID-19, but I still speak out regularly.
3/Yet I defended the police crackdown on the Melbourne protest against COVID-19 restrictions, and I support the recent police action taken re Sam Newman. I don't endorse protest for the sake of protest, especially not his brand of attention-seeking bullshit.
4/There is a difference between government restrictions in the name of health and safety, and authoritarianism. Just as there's a difference between protesting against injustice and protesting against inconvenience.
5/By which I mean, you can say you're standing up for your rights, that the COVID-19 lockdown is the act of a dictatorship, etc etc. Bullshit. You're protesting the restrictions because they affect you personally and you don't like it.
6/I have no time for that self-indulgent shite, especially when elsewhere in the world people's freedoms are genuinely threatened and participating in a protest may carry lifelong consequences. Grow up, put up, and for the sake of our sanity, SHUT UP. #COVID19Vic #IStandWithDan
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