Thousands of people are gathering for a Black Lives Matter protest in Perth, as hundreds more people have joined anti-racism and refugee rights demonstrations unfolding across Australia today.
Key points:
- Protests in Darwin and Innisfail were approved by state authorities under COVID-19 measures
- A Black Lives Matter protest in Perth went ahead against the urging of Premier Mark McGowan
- But refugee rights protests planned for Sydney have been prohibited by the New South Wales Supreme Court
The protest in Western Australia's capital city is going ahead despite the WA Premier urging organisers to postpone the event and the City of Perth refusing to grant a permit for it to take place.
The Perth protest organisers are calling for an end to racial violence, a reduction in the Indigenous incarceration rate, an end to both systemic racism and the removal of Aboriginal children from families and for "sovereignty now".
11,000 masks and hand sanitiser will be provided at the event via hygiene stations spread across the venue and organisers have encouraged social distancing.
The City of Perth had expected between 8,000 and 15,000 people to attend, and said Langley Park West could accommodate approximately 20,000 people at 1.5 metre distancing with overflow space also available if required.
Jacinta Taylor, one of the event organisers, said she hoped the event would achieve long-lasting change.
Her father, 79-year-old Noongar elder Ben Taylor, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his tireless efforts for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rights.
"There have been people like my dad who have been pushing for change since they were my age," Ms Taylor said.
"I don't want to have to be 80 years old and still pushing for this kind of change."
In a separate protest, hundreds of people gathered outside the Perth headquarters of mining giant Rio Tinto this week, to demonstrate against the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site in WA's Pilbara region late last month.
Black Lives Matter protests began in Darwin, Innisfail
In Darwin, a protest which drew in up to 1,000 people began with a welcome to country and speeches from four young Aboriginal women, followed by a smoking ceremony led by Larrakia elder June Mills.
The organisers successfully lodged a COVID-19 safety plan with the Northern Territory Government, which allowed them to host a gathering of more than 500 people in the territory, which currently has no recorded active coronavirus cases.
In the Far North Queensland town of Innisfail, around 300 people were undeterred by rain, joining a march to highlight Indigenous deaths in custody.
Organiser Brett Ambrun said the rally demonstrated Innisfail was "standing up as a community".
"We want to march down the street, we want to make a difference and say 'enough is enough'," he said.
Protesters were required to register and have temperature checks while marchers set off in groups of 20.
In Adelaide's CBD, a small number of Black Lives Matter protesters held signs in Victoria Square, despite the official event being cancelled by organisers earlier this week.
Police had warned people could be fined for breaching COVID-19 restrictions if they showed up to demonstrate, but those who gathered in the rain shortly after midday said they were following the guidelines.
Protests against detention and treatment of asylum seekers
Asylum seeker rights rallies organised by Refugee Action Coalition got underway in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in the afternoon.
The New South Wales Supreme Court has declared today's planned protests prohibited due to coronavirus restrictions and NSW Police have warned officers "will not hesitate to take the appropriate action" against those who attend.
Despite the ban, about 60 protesters were marching around Sydney Town Hall and chanting after 2:00pm.
In an inner-city Brisbane suburb, crowds built outside the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel and Apartments, where dozens of asylum seekers are being held.
Police closed Main Street in Kangaroo Point ahead of the rally, which is calling for the release of asylum seekers.
Overnight, two protesters were arrested after activists jumped on top of a van and set up tents outside the apartment complex in a bid to stop a person from being transported to the Brisbane Immigration Accommodation centre.
In Melbourne, organisers said they planned to abide by physical-distancing restrictions by hosting the protests in eight separate locations across the city.
At least 20 people gathered outside the Mantra hotel in Melbourne's north, which is holding several asylum seekers and refugees who were evacuated for medical reasons from offshore detention under medevac laws.
The demonstrators gathered at a house next to the Mantra and unfurled a large banner.
The protests began with chants of "free, free refugees".
Although the steps of Victorian Parliament was designated as one of the eight protest locations, police officers and journalists were the only people there as the protest began at 2:00pm.
The Tamil Refugee Council's Aran Mylvaganam said if authorities "really cared" about protecting people and enforcing the law, they would end the prolonged detention of asylum seekers.
"Despite the pandemic, despite the medical advice, our Government continues to detain these people because it serves their agenda," he said.
"Refugees in these detention centres have shown incredible resistance, that demands our solidarity."
Health experts weigh risks of protest differently
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack today repeated the Federal Government's plea for protesters to stay home.
"Common sense would dictate to them that they should be staying at home and that they should not be flouting social distancing rules, gathering for causes which yes, may seem important and may be important," he said.
"But the important thing is that we don't have a second wave of attacks."
Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week urged Australians not to join the protests, saying "the medical advice is that this is an unsafe thing to do".
Federal Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said on Friday it would not be known for another week or so whether protests last weekend had increased transmission of coronavirus.
Professor Murphy warned that despite organisers' best efforts to reduce risks, "you cannot make them [protests] safe".
But Public Health Association Australia has defended the right for protesters to take to the streets, if it is done safely.
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"Two hugely important public health objectives — Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 — have been framed as competing imperatives. They are not," the public health body's CEO Terry Slevin said in a statement on Friday.
The group urged governments and police to support the right to protest and work to mitigate coronavirus transmission risk by supplying masks to protesters.
"If the same commitment made by Australians and their governments to control COVID-19 was applied to eradicating racism and improving the circumstances of our First People, Australia would be an enormously advanced nation," Mr Slevin said.
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2020-06-13 04:57:59Z
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