Police, Story Bridge protesters to meet amid COVID-19 warnings
Asylum seeker protesters have agreed to meet police as authorities warn against attempts to shut down Brisbane’s Story Bridge this weekend.
QLD News
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Protesters who planned to shut down the Story Bridge tomorrow have agreed to meet with police.
A statement on the Queensland Police Service Facebook page said the two parties had agreed to a meeting.
“Queensland Police Service has agreed to a meeting with the Refugee Solidarity Meanjin Group next week to discuss their concerns,” the statement said.
It was unclear if the protest would still go ahead.
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As zero new cases of COVID-19 recorded across the state again, authorities have warned locals to not jeopodise the good results by participating in a protest anticipated to shut down the Story Bridge on Saturday.
Up to 300 people had suggested on social media they would attend the protest, designed to shut down the Story Bridge tomorrow.
Queensland’s Health Minister Steven Miles said he did not want to see the protest go ahead.
“Any breach of our health directions could put the lives of Queenslanders at risk,” he said.
Mr Miles confirmed some 500,080 Queenslanders have now been tested since the beginning of the pandemic, with 16,183 conducted in the past 24 hours.
He said the state was still monitoring cases that were being reported in other states but that if the weekend goes well, Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young wants to be able to lift restrictions imposed on aged care facilities across the southeast next week.
Dr Young said the southeast could start to relax next week if there are no new cases reported this weekend.
“This weekend is really, really important,” she said.
She urged everyone to maintain 1.5 metres at all times but reiterated that Queenslanders should “not go and protest this weekend.”
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said going onto the Story Bridge was not a lawful protest.
He said authorities were still looking at legal options and warned protesters would not be allowed to shut down the bridge.
“If we can get an instrument to prevent this protest happening, we will do that,” he said.
He said they understood that still might not be able to stop people turning out and that measures would be put in place.
“We’ll continue to push that (legal action) right up to the moment,” he said, when asked if there was a cut-off point for when a decision had to be made.
“There are legal issues: you have to prove who the organisers are and all those sorts of things so we’re trying to work through that, but we’re realistic enough to know that that may not discourage people anyway so we’re ready with our operation.”
He said he was unable to help with the demands of the protesters because they were matters for the Commonwealth.
Mr Gollschewski said 73 flights came into Queensland yesterday, with 42 passengers placed into hotel quarantine.
Dr Young earlier this morning took to ABC radio to say she was “not surprised” that one of the latest local coronavirus cases turned out to be a false-negative result.
A woman from Ipswich tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, but Queensland Health last night confirmed she did not, in fact, have the virus.
Dr Young said that almost 100,000 Queenslanders had been tested for coronavirus since the state’s latest COVID scare, which she said increased the risk of a false-positive COVID reading.
“We do get them very occasionally and given that we’ve tested nearly 100,000 Queenslanders since those three women came back from Melbourne, I’m not surprised,” Dr Young told ABC radio.
Queensland Police also confirmed this morning that a ‘border bubble’ would be created between the Gold Coast and The Tweed.
People who live either side of the border will be allowed to move freely between the Gold Coast and Tweed Shire for any reason from 1am on Saturday.
Originally published as Police, Story Bridge protesters to meet amid COVID-19 warnings
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