There is a heavy police presence today as people rock up to protest outside of the CFMEU building in Melbourne.
An anti-lockdown Telegram group has encouraged people to attend today after the attack on the building yesterday.
The protest has been going on for about 40mins. So far there has been a lot of shouting and swearing at the police.
CFMEU boarded up. Mounted police and riot squad in attendance.
Some are angry about the claims "right-wing extremists" and "Nazis" orchestrated yesterday's event.
It's unclear whether these people attended the event yesterday but there seems to be a real mix of people here today.
Riot police have given the crowd several warnings now. Some members of the crowd in this livestream have yelled: "we're not scared of you" and "come here".
A standoff between police and those in attendance continues.
People are now yelling "f--k the jab" as they set off flares and march down the street.
Police now guarding the Parliament of Victoria.
Police are blocking the entrance to Flinders St Station. Haven't seen any major clashes yet - like we saw yesterday.
Protesters are now blocking the freeway causing traffic to come to a halt
So we are five hours in now. Some people have thrown projectiles at police. No big clashes have erupted between protesters and police as of yet.
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Lots of people are saying Greens gains in Brisbane electorates are due to climate change. That’s part of it but as someone living on the ground here, people are missing the huge grassroots community approach those candidates have led.
The Greens have been holding community forums, providing flood relief and COVID-19 care packages and door-knocking up a storm.
They’ve had thousands of volunteers campaigning for them every weekend. It’s been a massive campaign that was widely underreported.
Atm the LNP have received more votes in Griffith than Labor. Floods were definitely on people’s minds but the Greens have been building momentum in Sth Brisbane since Jonathan Sri was elected local councillor in 2016.
& Greens MP Amy MacMahon was also elected to Qld parliament
Qld seats to watch tonight 👇
- Brisbane
- Ryan
- Longman
- Griffith
- Flynn
- Leichhardt
Other things I’m interested in knowing;
- Will Greens pick up a lower house seat in Qld
- How will Labor go in Qld this time around
- How many Independents will get elected
- Have UAP and One Nation managed to attract more voters with anti-vaccine/mandate sentiment
ABC says LNP will retain Groom in Qld. Results are currently showing One Nation with more votes than Independent Susie Holt (but only 16.8% of the vote has been counted)
1/ Exclusive from me: Australian sex workers have reported police inaction, entrapment and expectation of free services by some officers in a new research paper. sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/…
2/ Some migrant sex workers in states where sex work is yet to be decriminalised said police expected free services in exchange for not reporting them. sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/…
3/ Some sex workers vowed nothing would convince them to contact the authorities, no matter how dire the circumstances. sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/…
New from me: When the pandemic began, the government asked ‘backpackers’ with critical skills to stay and help Australia get through the health crisis.
But these workers have been excluded from the re-opening of international borders next month. sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/…
Midwife Roisin has cared for patients with COVID-19 and gone without seeing her family for 18 months.
She said the decision to exclude temporary visa holders from re-entering Australia feels like "a slap in the face." sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/…
Tom, an emergency department doctor from the UK, believes the government should give temporary visa holders more clarity about what they have “to look forward to” rather than leaving them “in limbo”. sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/…
1/ Fox has interviewed 'Real Rukshan' - a prominent livestreamer who attends anti-lockdown protests
He calls himself an "independent journalist" but is notably popular among the anti-lockdown crowd. In his livestreams, protesters have chanted his name & offered him donations
2/ Rukshan claims he isn't accepting donations. At the protest, he was praised while a Ch7 journalist was attacked by protesters & doused in urine.
Rukshan's livestreams have reached 70k viewers & he's been interviewed by global media, as well as Australia's own 3AW.
3/ In this clip, he compares Melbourne to "Communist China".
There is no mention of protesters smashing up a union building, protesters pelting projectiles at police or the rioting that occurred on Monday. Only the police response is discussed.