00:02Well, this protest really is the main event.
00:05I mentioned before in that package you just aired
00:07that there were protesters that were finding
00:09where the Israeli president was going
00:12and trying to get there to send their message.
00:14Well, this tonight is the loudest message
00:16that the protesters are sending today.
00:19Police were expecting around 5,000 or upwards of 5,000 protesters.
00:24That's what we had here on Monday evening.
00:28I was here that night,
00:29and I would say it's about the same,
00:31but it has only just started.
00:33Perhaps it is getting a little bit bigger as well
00:35and will continue to get bigger, of course,
00:37as people finish their day's work.
00:39You can see behind me that Flinders Street,
00:42the intersection in front of Flinders Street,
00:43is absolutely packed.
00:45And the key message from these protesters tonight
00:48is even though the Israeli president is now leaving Melbourne
00:53and leaving Australia,
00:54given this is his last leg of the journey,
00:56the message from these protesters
00:57is that he should have never been invited to come here,
01:00that he was never welcomed here in Australia.
01:02So that's the key message we're going to be hearing from these protesters.
01:06The police presence is comparable to what I saw on Monday,
01:11but I have noticed that the officers are now closer to the protests.
01:15On Monday, they're a good couple of hundred of metres away,
01:18giving the protesters plenty of space to make their voice heard.
01:22Now I've noticed a few more officers that are just standing,
01:25a few public response officers standing closer to the protests.
01:29What Victoria Police said yesterday
01:31is they don't expect any further unrest
01:34than what they saw on Monday,
01:35which was largely a peaceful protest.
01:37That's what police are expecting.
01:39But, of course, we do have those officers a little bit closer now,
01:42so perhaps they're a little bit more on guard tonight, Joe.
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