1000 protesters attend anti-lockdown rally in Gympie

As New South Wales recorded its worst day of the recent outbreak the Gympie anti-lockdown protesters ‘rallied for freedom’ despite the Gympie region not being under lockdown.

A global rally against lockdowns made its way to Gympie on Saturday when about 1000 protesters gathered at Lake Alford.

As New South Wales recorded its worst day of the recent outbreak the Gympie anti-lockdown protesters “rallied for freedom” despite the Gympie region not being under lockdown.

Protesters, many carrying signs and of all ages, gathered at the Duck Ponds from midday.

Police said no arrests were made or enforcement action was taken at the Gympie rally, which was peaceful.

“My issue is not a mask. My issue is that I, and many others, are being coerced, handcuffed, forced if you will, to put on a mask, to give my personal details, to stay inside,” one guest speaker told the assembled crowd.

“There may come a day when injections are mandated.”

Vaccinations have been made mandatory for aged care workers, but remain voluntary for the wider Australian population.

The Gympie region remains subject to only minimal restrictions, including mandatory QR code scanning and mask requirements for people who have been in the southeast corner of the state since June 29.

Protesters rally at Lake Alford.

Queensland police have come under fire for using QR code data to help solve crimes.

Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski has since said he would be “very happy” for the State Government to bar police accessing that data.

Rallies were simultaneously held at Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, where police clashes led to multiple arrests and charges, including two for allegedly punching a police horse.

Gympie’s rally was part of a nationwide protest against lockdown measures in capital cities including Melbourne.

However the protests sparked fears on social media they would contribute to restrictions being tightened rather than loosened with no social distancing at the rally and few face masks at the rally.

Australia’s deputy chief medical officer, Michael Kidd, said Saturday the protests were putting lives at risk.

“I’m very concerned if people are not following those restrictions … When that happens, there is the risk that we’ll get spread of Covid-19,” he said.

“This is even more imperative during this outbreak with the Delta variant than it was during the times last year when we saw similar protests.”

The delta strain of the virus has been detected in Queensland.

Some Gympie protesters also took aim at the Covid vaccination program, brandishing signs calling it “toxic” and declaring people were not “lab rats”.

One placard taped to a post at the event claimed “fake news, stop masks, jabs kill” and pointed to the Nuremberg Code saying “we do not concent (sic)”.

One of the rally’s signs, referencing the 1947 Nuremberg Code. Experts have repeatedly debunked claims the Code, which was replaced by the Helsinki Declaration in 1964, applies to Australia’s vaccine rollout.

The Nuremberg is a 10-point set of rules for the conduct of medical experiments on humans, established in 1947.

Claims the Covid-19 vaccine program are incompatible with the code have been debunked numerous times.

In June bioethics professor Angus Dawson, the director of Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney, told the Australian Associated Press the code does not apply to vaccine delivery in a public health crisis.

“It is true that a choice not to be vaccinated may mean that you do not have access to certain benefits, but this is not coercion, as such,” he told the AAP.

“If a legitimate law establishes that you do not have access to some benefits as a result of not doing something, (and) this is known and publicly declared, it seems odd to call this coercion.”

The Nuremberg Code was replaced by the World Medical Association’s Helsinki Declaration in 1964.

The World Health Organisation reports more than 4 million deaths as a result of Covid infections worldwide and more than 192 million cases.

More than 3.6 billion vaccine doses have been administered.