Police invoke powers to unmask disruptors as women’s rights rally returns to scene of neo-Nazi stunt

Victoria Police has enacted special search and arrest powers to deter neo-Nazis from gatecrashing a women’s rights rally and planned counter-protest by trans activists at state parliament on Saturday.

The measure is an effort to stop the stand-off escalating into violence and means that, for eight hours, the parliamentary precinct is a designated area where people can be searched for weapons, told to remove face coverings and arrested if they refuse police direction to leave.

Women Will Speak rally organiser Jasmine Sussex welcomed the Victoria Police decision to invoke special powers at the event.Credit: Wayne Taylor

This is the first time the police powers have been used to protect an event associated with the Let Women Speak movement, which has provoked confrontations between feminists and trans activists around the world and two years ago in Melbourne, when far-right agitators performed a Nazi salute on the steps of state parliament.

The fall-out from that sequence of events, which prompted former Liberal leader John Pesutto to expel MP Moira Deeming from the party, is still being felt in the parliament, where the Liberals have a new leader, Deeming is back in the party room and a defamation finding against Pesutto is threatening to bankrupt him and end his political career. 

The police declaration was gazetted the day before the ANZAC Day dawn service in Melbourne, where neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant was arrested after he and other unidentified men booed the Welcome to Country and anyone who acknowledged traditional Aboriginal lands during the ceremony.

Hersant’s actions, which were roundly condemned by political and community leaders, were the latest in a series of disruptive intrusions by extremists during the federal election campaign.

Neo-Nazis perform a Hitler salute outside the Victorian Parliament after gatecrashing the 2023 Let Women Speak rally.Credit: Chris Hopkins

One of the organisers of the Women Will Speak rally planned for midday Saturday, Jasmine Sussex, welcomed the Victoria Police declaration. She wrote this week to Police Minister Anthony Carbines seeking additional protection for women at the event.

“Women are now safe and welcome to come to parliament and talk about our rights,” she said. “We’ve been working with police for some time and the police minister and City of Melbourne to call for a proactive, multi-agency response to avoid ugly scenes of the past.”

Sussex, a lactation expert, is currently subject to a complaint under Queensland’s anti-vilification laws for publicly deriding a trans woman’s attempts to breastfeed.

The Women Will Speak rally will be addressed by speakers including Liberal MP Bev McArthur, gender-critical feminist writers Julie Szego and Holly Lawford-Smith and Dutch-born West Australian state MP Sophie Moermond.

Let her speak: Moira Deeming takes questions after she was readmitted to the Liberal party room.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Deeming, who was last week made Opposition Leader Brad Battin’s “representative to the western suburbs”, is not expected to attend.

Deeming was awarded $300,000 in damages and welcomed back into the Liberal Party after a Federal Court judge found Pesutto defamed her in March 2023 by falsely implying she knowingly associated or sympathised with neo-Nazis.

She is pursuing a multimillion dollar costs order against Pesutto which, if made by the court, could force him to file for bankruptcy.

Trans-rights groups including Trans Queer Solidarity and the Trans Action Network have organised a counter rally for Saturday. Supporters are being urged to attend in mass numbers and make enough noise to “drown out the terfascists.”

“Terf (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and white nationalist networks are mobilising again,” one of the groups warned in a social media post. “We reject their oppressive ideology.”

The trans groups are instructing activists to wear facemasks and all black clothing and not bring any weapons.

Victoria Police said it had no intelligence to suggest neo-Nazi groups were intending to gatecrash the rally as they did two years ago. “However, we plan for all possibilities,” a spokesperson said.

“We will have a visible presence to keep the peace and ensure the safety of the community. Police are also equipped to respond to a counterprotest which is expected to occur simultaneously. Water filled barriers will also be placed in the area to assist police in keeping the peace.

“Under the Control of Weapons Act, we have declared the area surrounding Parliament House a designated area for weapon searches. This will provide officers with powers to search people for weapons in the area on the day, as well as allowing police to identify people more easily by requesting they remove any face coverings.”

The global Let Women Speak movement, which argues that laws promoting trans-inclusion have eroded sex-based rights and intruded unreasonably into women’s spaces, was buoyed by this month’s UK Supreme Court ruling that, for the purposes of Britain’s Equality Act, a woman is defined by her biological sex.

The decision, which Judge Lord Hodge said would have no impact on protections against discrimination for trans people, has prompted the Scottish government to revise its guidance on whether trans-women should have access to women’s public toilets and change rooms.

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