Anti-racism counter-rally underway in Melbourne

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A sizable police presence is in place in the Melbourne CBD keeping two groups of protesters apart. Thousands of people are attending both events, with one demanding an end to mass migration and the other, advocating for anti-racist views.

Transcript

00:00Well, we've actually had to step away from the group because stun grenades went off and

00:07it was really quite loud, everyone scattered just behind me.

00:11The group that I'm with is the Counter Protest for the March for Australia rally and they've

00:16marched all the way from the State Library of Victoria to Parliament, almost to Parliament,

00:21we're actually outside the Princess Theatre where there's hundreds of police, they've

00:26sort of formed these two lines because there's one group here with the Counter Protest and

00:31there's the Riot Squad, there's Mounted Police and they've created this gap between the two

00:37groups and then another line of police officers that are with the March for Australia rally

00:43stopping the two groups from merging.

00:46Now what the March for Australia rally is calling for is, it's an anti-immigration rally basically

00:51and it's their second one.

00:52The first rally was in August of course and the group behind me, the Counter Protest,

00:58they're speaking directly against the racism and fascism that they're claiming is coming

01:02from that other group.

01:04And in the speeches today we heard that they've promised to always come to these protests,

01:09every March for Australia protest that is organised in Melbourne.

01:13They've promised to also come to counter that message, to stand up against racism and say

01:18no to a white Australia.

01:19Now that protest was quite controversial in August, we of course heard from one of the

01:25speeches, one of the men who gave the speeches was a prominent neo-Nazi, Thomas Soule, who's

01:30since been jailed.

01:32And this group here with the Counter Protest, there's a range of messaging here as well, they're

01:37calling to free Palestine, there's the First Nations group that's leading this protest as well,

01:43and they're calling for sovereignty and for treaty.

01:46And the police are here, they've got additional powers today in the CBD and just outside the

01:53CBD they're able to search anyone for weapons and they're also able to direct people away

01:59from the city if they believe that they are a threat and potentially might cause some violence

02:04violence or if they refuse to remove a face covering.

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