Protesters block West Gate Bridge after construction sector shuttered

Traffic was brought to a standstill on the West Gate Freeway as a large crowd of protesters streamed across the West Gate Bridge, chanting and lobbing projectiles at police, the day after the government called an abrupt two-week shutdown of the construction industry.

The fluoro-clad crowd walked up the major road from Melbourne’s CBD on Tuesday afternoon, lighting flares and chanting “every day”, alluding to plans to maintain protest action over the coming week.

“To all Australians out there,” one demonstrator said into a camera live-streaming the protest, “this is what defending your freedoms looks like”.

Protesters reached the centre of the West Gate Bridge about 3.30pm before heading back to the CBD.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said officers deployed rubber pellets, smoke rounds, foam baton rounds and pepper balls in an attempt to disperse the crowd of up to 2000.

Mr Patton said three of the 500 officers involved in the operation were injured, a journalist was attacked numerous times and police cars damaged.

He said 44 people had been arrested, but warned that number would continue to grow.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews condemned the actions of the protesters.

Mr Andrews said there was “no excuse for the terrible behaviour we have seen in our city over the last two days”.

“Acts of violence and disruption won’t result in one less case of [COVID-19] - in fact it only helps the virus to spread.”

More than 1000 protesters gather on West Gate Bridge on Tuesday afternoon.Credit: Jason South

The nurses’ union also slammed the anti-vaccination protesters, calling on them to “stop fighting for the right to overwhelm our health system”.

The protesters, marching against mandatory vaccinations and other restrictions in the construction sector, took to the streets for a second day in a row on Tuesday. The action followed a decision to temporarily shut down the industry after a violent protest on Monday.

The group, which police later estimated at between 1000 and 2000, clashed with police near the CFMEU offices in the CBD after snaking through the city and making its way back to its starting point at the top of Elizabeth Street.

Flares were lit and glass bottles and other projectiles were thrown at police. The crowds met mounted and riot police on the steps of Parliament House as they yelled chants deriding vaccine mandates and the Premier.

Health Minister Martin Foley labelled Monday’s protests – during which windows were smashed, projectiles thrown and rubber bullets fired by police to disperse the crowd – as “deplorable”. He said significant spread of COVID-19 had been linked to the construction sector, defending the choice to close the sector down.

A week of COVID-safety compliance checks had found half the construction sites checked were in breach of public health orders. More than 400 cases of COVID-19 had also been linked to construction workers.

“[By the government public health team’s] account, currently 403 direct cases linked to construction, which in turn is linked to 186 construction sites. Of these 186 construction sites, 151 are in metropolitan Melbourne, of these 151 Melbourne construction sites, there are 362 cases directly linked, and of those, 49 of them live in regional Victoria,” Mr Foley said.

The Health Department later revised this figure down, saying 337 cases were linked to the construction industry.

CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka labelled Monday’s demonstration, with a mix of construction union members and far-right activists who were also involved in Saturday’s anti-lockdown freedom rally, “absolutely outrageous”, while former federal opposition leader Bill Shorten went further, dismissing agitators as “hard-right man-baby Nazis”.

Treasurer Tim Pallas said the decision to close down construction was not an easy one.

“It is a sad day, I think, in many ways, for a lot of the construction industry workers, a lot of people who’ve been doing the right thing, that unfortunately aberrant behaviour among the minority has led to a very substantial public health risk,” he said, prompting the need to “take strong action, consistent with the Chief Health Officer’s orders, in order to protect the community, but also to protect those workers, their workmates, their families”.

Mr Pallas said that during inspections in the past few weeks by authorised officers, 50 per cent of construction sites had failed to meet safety requirements.

“There have been very high non-compliance rates identified. We’ve also seen some appalling behaviour on our streets which in itself is a public health risk,” he said.

He said a permitted-worker permit did not carry “an entitlement to put the rest of the community at risk”.

Speaking on Radio National, Mr Setka said Monday’s protests were hijacked by “professional protesters” and that union members were only a small minority of those involved.

“They weren’t the majority there, there was a small minority of construction workers there. Some of them when it all got violent they just walked away from it. It was hijacked by the professional protesters. Wherever they go, they just want to pick a fight.

Protesters in Melbourne on Tuesday.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“They’re not even union members; they’re not members of our union. And that’s a disappointing thing and to see these people hurl projectiles and other people smashing in property it’s just absolutely disgusting.”

Mr Shorten said he believed protesters deserved to face the full force of the law.

“There is a network of hard-right man-baby Nazis, just people who just want to cause trouble. These man-babies, they want to complain about the vaccination, and it’s just ... they deserve to get the full force of everything that’s coming their way,” Mr Shorten said on Nine’s Today program.

The Andrews government formally announced the two-week shutdown of the construction industry late on Monday night, less than three hours before the closure was to begin at 11.59pm.

Construction workers have been protesting against vaccine mandates in the industry and a ban on tea rooms, prompted by a number of COVID-19 cases being linked to construction sites.

Mr Setka said the union wanted the workforce vaccinated, but stopped short of supporting the government’s mandatory vaccination edict.

“We’re pro-vaccine. We’ve run radio ads encouraging our members to get vaccinated because as far as we’re concerned, we think that’s the road map out of this lockdown because we can’t stay in lockdown for forever and a day,” Mr Setka said.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program that encouraging people towards vaccination would work better than mandating shots.

The anti-mandatory-vaccine protest has been condemned by the nursing union. Credit: Eddie Jim

“In areas that you have to bring in mandatory vaccinations, and it is [done] so quickly without giving people a chance to get to where we have in parts of the country – over 80 per cent [first dose] – you create a space for people to stir things up, to divide people,” Ms McManus said.

Lisa Fitzpatrick, the Victorian secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, said nurses, midwives and carers were “exhausted as they watch protesters fight for their right to overwhelm our health system”.

“Aged care nurses and carers have seen hundreds of their residents contract COVID-19 and die without loved ones with them,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.

“Through it all they wear hot, bruising and uncomfortable PPE, have their breaks in an outdoor tent or the carpark and are getting vaccinated – to protect themselves, their patients, their colleagues, loved ones and the community.”

Police officers file past Flinders Street Station on Tuesday afternoon.Credit: Jason South

All construction projects in metropolitan Melbourne, the City of Ballarat, City of Greater Geelong, Surf Coast Shire and Mitchell Shire will stay shuttered, with limited exemptions for workers to attend closed sites to respond to emergencies or perform urgent and essential work to protect health and safety.

Some critical infrastructure works, such as hospitals and some ongoing level-crossing removal projects, will continue during the shutdown.

With Nick Bonyhady, Ben Schneiders and Broede Carmody

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