Councillors attend Melbourne anti-vax ‘freedom’ protests, including Geelong’s Belinda Moloney and Surf Coast’s Paul Barker

Two G21 have joined in Melbourne’s freedom protest, with a Geelong councillor adorning a shirt declaring: “Think for yourself, question authority”.

Two G21 councillors attended Melbourne’s anti-vax “freedom” protests on the weekend.

Surf Coast Shire’s Paul Barker and City of Greater Geelong’s Belinda Moloney both posted photos of themselves attending the rallies to social media.

Cr Moloney posted a photo of herself posing at the rally to Instagram on Sunday.

In another video posted to the page where she spoke out against the treatment of horses at the Melbourne Cup, she also referred to a decision to let 10,000 fully vaccinated people attend Flemington Racecourse as “political, definitely not science”.

“If you’re participating in any of the segregation and nastiness that’s going on in society right now, you definitely need to check yourself before you wreck yourself,” she said.

Belinda Moloney’s at Saturday's protest

She wore a shirt saying, “think for yourself, question authority”.

Corangamite Liberal Democrat candidate and Surf Coast Councillor Paul Barker – who was there in his capacity as a federal political candidate – also posted a slew of photos from the protest.

Cr Barker said he was there in opposition to the state government’s controversial pandemic bill, and saw a “bunch” of people from Geelong and the Surf Coast in attendance.

Paul Barker at protest

“I have a personal bias to oppose government control of individual’s lives generally,” said.

He also repeated unsubstantiated claims on social media that between “500,000 and 1 million” people turned out to oppose vaccine mandates.

When questioned, he said he’d come to the conclusion “based on the observations from overhead imagery”.

But Victorian Police Commissioner Shane Patton told 3AW the rally attracted crowds of 10,000-20,000 people at its height.

The latest health data revealed 90.8 per cent of Victorians aged 12 and over are fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

City of Greater Geelong CEO Martin Cutter confirmed the council has no specific policy relating to councillors at public demonstrations.

Cr Belinda Moloney was contacted for comment.

Originally published as Councillors attend Melbourne anti-vax ‘freedom’ protests, including Geelong’s Belinda Moloney and Surf Coast’s Paul Barker