Leading candidates for Melbourne’s lord mayoral race have joined calls by CBD business owners and residents for better management of public demonstrations to reduce the disruption caused by weekly protests and potential damage to the city’s international reputation.
After a year of pro-Palestinian protests which each Sunday take over a Melbourne city block, mayoral aspirants Nick Reece and Arron Wood have urged the state government to intervene.
Pro-Palestinian protesters staged their 52nd weekly rally in central Melbourne on Sunday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
It came as Victoria Police revealed they were investigating an unidentified man who held up a sign depicting a swastika, a banned symbol under Victorian law, at last Sunday’s Melbourne rally.
While both Reece and Wood support the right to freedom of assembly, they expressed concern that Melbourne’s growing reputation for protest imposed a cumulative cost on people who live and own businesses in the city.
“I strongly support people’s right to protest,” said Reece, who is serving as a stand-in lord mayor before this month’s local government elections. “I also recognise that after 52 weeks of protests, the disruption is significant. I am particularly worried about small businesses in the city which rely on weekend trade to make ends meet.
“I am getting weekly phone calls from restaurateurs and city retailers telling me the protests are having a real, negative impact on their business. Many are saying they don’t know how much longer they can go on. Think about the restaurants in Chinatown for whom Sunday yum cha is the most important trading time of the week.
“This is not a protest about industrial relations law or government policy. It is a protest about events occurring on the other side of the world which we as Melburnians, sadly, have no impact on. Yes, people can protest, but we need to manage the real and acute downside consequences.”
Nick Reece takes the microphone during a debate with City of Melbourne mayoral candidates. Arron Wood is fourth from left.Credit: Simon Schluter
Reece said the Allan government should consider “all options” to better manage a protest movement which shows no sign of abating, although this week’s attendance was much smaller than last week’s which coincided with the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks.
Wood wants the introduction of a permit system, in line with other states, and for the Sunday protest to shift to a less disruptive, authorised site in the Treasury Gardens or another suitable location.
“Regardless of the issue that is being protested, we need to do more to minimise disruption to the hundreds of businesses and thousands of city residents that are being impacted by the regularity of protests in the CBD – Melbourne can’t become known as Australia’s protest capital,” he said.
A protester in Melbourne holds up a portrait of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
The comments come after violent scenes at the Land Forces expo in Melbourne last month and large repeated rallies in opposition to federal government action against the CFMEU.
The Allan government last week resisted mounting pressure to adopt a NSW-style permit system, with Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes saying it could potentially deter protest organisers from sharing their plans with police.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto wants the reinstatement of “move-on” powers to help police quickly respond to any protesters inciting violence. However, Victoria Police are not using powers they already have to arrest protesters who appear to be breaking the law.
At the last two Sunday rallies staged on Swanston Street outside the State Library of Victoria, this masthead has seen protesters carrying signs depicting a swastika.
A protester holds up a swastika, a symbol banned in Victoria, at a pro-Palestinian rally in Melbourne on October 6.
A Victoria Police spokesperson confirmed detectives were investigating an incident at the October 6 rally, one of the largest held in Melbourne since the start of the war, when a man waved a placard with a swastika set inside a Star of David. The matter has been referred to the Australian Federal Police.
This follows the prosecution of 56-year-old restaurant owner Alan Yazbek, who was arrested on the spot and charged by NSW police for holding up a similar sign at a Sydney protest. He is due to face court next month.
In Melbourne on Sunday, a woman carrying a “Nazi Israel” sign with a backwards swastika was spoken to by police but not arrested.
Most protesters at Sunday’s rally waved Palestinian or Lebanese flags. One carried a portrait of Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, the patron state of the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups.
CBD resident and local government candidate Rafael Camillo says some people are afraid to leave their apartments during pro-Palestine protests.Credit: Joe Armao
Protest organiser Tasnim Sammak, a spokesperson for the Free Palestine Coalition, said swastikas and other hate symbols were not welcome at the rallies.
“The organisers condemn all forms of antisemitism and expressions of fascism,” she said. “We stand with all oppressed groups and we stand with the Jewish people against fascist ideology.”
Asked whether organisers were concerned at the impact their protests were having on local traders and residents, Sammak said the rallies would continue for as long as Israel conducted military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
“The demands of the movement need to be met, which is to stop the genocide in Gaza and end the aggression on Lebanon,” she said. “The protests will continue until we see the upholding of international justice that brings the genocide to an end.”
Jamal Hakim, a Melbourne councillor and mayoral candidate who has addressed previous Sunday rallies, said any attempt to restrict the right to peaceful protest was a dangerous step.
“You can’t really control protests,” said Hakim, who has family in Beirut, the Lebanese capital that has been the target of Israeli missile strikes. “For the short time that the protests are happening, I don’t think they are infringing on other people’s rights.”
Residents 3000 president Rafael Camillo, who is running for the City of Melbourne council and lives a short walk from the state library, said some people were afraid to leave their apartments during the rallies.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra said the disruption to business was “undeniable”.
“There are some religions and nationalities that feel intimidated because of the protests and will no longer come in,” he said. “That is not where we want our city to be. That is not the fabric of Melbourne.”
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