Sat 13 November 2021:
The protest against the vaccination mandate, which went into force on Saturday and requires all construction workers in Victoria state to be fully vaccinated, was peaceful, with no incidents of disorderly behavior or arrests, Reuters News agency reported.
Several thousand anti-vax activists gathered in Melbourne on Saturday urged for violence against Australian lawmakers, comparing them to Nazis, according to local media.
In Australia, where 83 percent of persons aged 16 and up have been fully immunized against the coronavirus, vaccinations are entirely voluntary. However, several states and territories have mandated vaccinations for numerous jobs and have prohibited unvaccinated people from participating in activities such as dining out and attending concerts.
However, the newspaper showed a protester carrying a banner picturing Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews with a Hitler mustache and the hashtag #DictatorDan. While a reporter for The Age tweeted a video of a demonstrator holding a mock gallows with three nooses hanging from it,
“We’re being governed by insane medical bureaucrats,” Craig Kelly, a former Liberal Party member who is now the leader of the United Australia Party, addressed the gathering, according to media reports.
According to The Age, several demonstrators called for violence against politicians but did not offer specifics.
In recent months, Australia has seen frequent, and occasionally violent, anti-vaccine protests, though the movement remains modest, with polls suggesting statewide resistance in the single digits.
Victoria, Australia’s second-most populated state, has an 87 percent vaccination rate and has been subjected to six COVID-19 lockdowns totaling nearly nine months.
There were 1,221 new infections reported on Saturday in Victoria and four deaths, and 250 daily cases in New South Wales.
Despite significant outbreaks that resulted in months of lockdown in Sydney and Melbourne, the national number of slightly under 190,000 infections and 1,591 deaths is far lower than that of many developed countries.
(with agency)
_____________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
