By Rachel Eddie
Victoria Police will have its budget increased by up to $15 million to deal with mass protests outside a weapons expo this week, which thousands of people have vowed to disrupt and blockade in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Hundreds of officers from regional Victoria have travelled to Melbourne to monitor protesters outside the Land Forces convention, which will showcase arms from defence contractors at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre over three days.
Protesters from different activist groups, including Extinction Rebellion and Students for Palestine, have banded together to form a larger group, Disrupt Land Forces. They plan to begin their blockade outside the expo at 6am.
Treasurer Tim Pallas said the state would provide an extra $10 million to $15 million to help pay for policing at the request of the force.
Officers will also have expanded powers to search and remove people in the area from Wednesday to Friday.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the force would have a significant presence at the expo over the three days.
“This is expected to be our largest operation since the [protest outside the] World Economic Forum in 2000,” she said.
Pallas called on protesters to have a “modicum of respect” during the action and called for the rest of the public to stay away.
Premier Jacinta Allan said Victorians travelling to the city for work and other reasons should be able to do so unimpeded by “any activity that could threaten community safety”.
“There is absolutely no place for that sort of behaviour,” Allan said.
A woman walks past a police barricade outside the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Tuesday. Thousands of protesters are expected outside on Wednesday.Credit: Simon Schluter
Bella Beiraghi, an organiser of Wednesday’s mass protest and the co-convenor of Students for Palestine, wants the expo cancelled and said the cost of policing the protest would be better spent on health and education.
“We are planning to disrupt and block people from getting into the event,” Beiraghi said.
She said Disrupt Land Forces was a pro-peace movement and disputed criticism that the protest could threaten community safety.
“What is very violent is the fact that the federal government and the Victorian government [are] welcoming a weapons conference, with actual military tanks, into the centre of our city … Tanks used on civilians, Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” Beiraghi said.
A pre-emptive protest outside the Melbourne Convention Centre on Sunday.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Pre-emptive protests last weekend were tense and disruptive.
On Saturday, activists attempted to stop a tank being delivered to the exhibition centre by blockading the Montague Street turn-off from the West Gate Bridge. A woman chained herself to a car that blocked inbound traffic.
She was charged, along with a woman who allegedly aided her, with public nuisance and obstructing police.
Victoria Police normally manages operations through its own budgets, but asked the state for financial support to help manage this week’s mass protests. Expo organisers also contributed to the cost of policing.
Land Forces declined to comment.
Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri said she would attend the protest on Wednesday and miss part of the parliamentary sitting day.
Asked repeatedly about violence at other past protests, de Vietri said the Greens was a party of peace and that there was no comparison between weapons manufacturers “and a scuffle or two between protesters”.
She hoped expanded police powers would not be used to move on peaceful protesters.
Protesters in Montague Street, South Melbourne on Sunday.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Shadow treasurer Brad Rowswell said the protesters were “an absolute and utter disgrace”.
“They are a stain on our state, on our state’s reputation as well. This is our opportunity for [the] fair dinkum defence industry to put their best foot forward and to pitch for more work on a global stage,” Rowswell said.
“And we’ve got, quite frankly, idiots making life a hell of a lot [more] difficult.”
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