Vile anti-vax protests at Melbourne hospitals must never happen again

The government must act swiftly on the rag-tag mob of pests who thought nothing of obstructing health workers and terrifying sick kids.

Anti-vax protesters in Victoria have just reached an all-time new low.

First, they urinated on the Shrine of Remembrance.

Then they wheeled gallows onto the steps of Parliament House.

And on the weekend, they blockaded streets outside the Royal Children’s Hospital – another sacred site.

This rag-tag mob of professional pests thought nothing of obstructing exhausted health care workers and terrifying sick kids and their families.

Kids receiving chemo turned up for treatment to find their path blocked by scumbags carrying signs telling them they got sick because of Covid-19 vaccines. What a disgrace.

The government must act swiftly in response.

Anti-vax protesters blockaded the Royal Children's Hospital on the weekend. Picture: Twitter

Exclusion zones of up to 150m around hospitals are urgently needed to protect patients and healthcare workers from the public menace of such protesters. We do it for abortion clinics; why not healthcare settings?

While peaceful protests should always be allowed, there was nothing peaceful about the weekend’s scenes.

Protesters screamed abuse and taunts over loud speakers and held signs that read: “These bastard MPs are killing our lovely kids” and “Vaxxing our kids is child abuse”.

The government should put as much effort into excluding these vile vermin as they did patrolling streets and slapping fines on innocent people taking their kids to playgrounds during lockdown.

These days, people face higher fines for vegetation vandalism or threatening an endangered species than stopping vulnerable kids accessing health care.

A gallows with nooses is seen during a 2021 rally against the state government’s pandemic laws. Picture: Daniel Pockett

Perhaps the government could enact its own pandemic powers, which would see them facing two years’ jail or a $90,500 fine for breaking public health orders?

That’d make them think twice about abusing and obstructing, not only patients and their families, but the staff who have toiled for more than two years now to keep everyone else safe.

The same groups have been responsible for attacks on GPs who supported vaccine trials. One doctor’s surgery in Qld received death threats and had slogans such as “kid killer” graffitied on his walls.

It’s part of a thriving underground anti-vax movement that co-opts slogans from the civil rights movement and calls for “choice” and “freedom”.

It’s time our freedom was prioritised over their right to obstruct, harangue, abuse and vilify innocent people going to work or taking their kids to hospital on a weekend.

Our right to keep our kids safe should be more important than their right to spread their poisonous misinformation and lies.

Our Pandemic Premier must act now to ensure this cannot ever happen again.