By Brittany Busch, Kieran Rooney and Ashleigh McMillan
Out-of-control violence has marred busy CBD streets after protesters, who were left unaccompanied by police, clashed with passersby following earlier skirmishes with law enforcement in which four officers were injured.
Earlier on Saturday, trans-rights activists and police clashed as protesters roamed the city after gathering to disrupt a women’s rights rally.
Pro-trans protesters moved through the streets from Parliament House, where they played drums and chanted at the Women Will Speak event on the steps outside Victoria’s parliament earlier in the day. About 50 people attended the Women Will Speak event, which drew about 440 protesters, according to Victoria Police.
“Around 40 people then conducted a march across the CBD, blocking intersections with wooden pallets and swarming local retailers,” police said in a statement.
Major intersections, including the corner of Collins and Swanston streets, were blocked while demonstrators chanted anti-police sentiment and pro-trans slogans.
Shouts of “quit your job” and “defund the police” could be heard as dozens of police formed lines to try to control the group’s movements.
Police deployed pepper spray at the crowd, some protesters were detained, and another fell to the ground, appearing injured, as police tried to corral the throng.
Police make an arrest as protesters clash in the CBD on Saturday.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Victoria Police said four officers were injured and two people were arrested. The organisation said the 37-year-old Brunswick woman and 41-year-old Footscray man were released with intent to summons.
Officers held their lines at the intersection of Swanston and Collins streets and the protesters moved away unaccompanied, north along Swanston Street.
As hundreds of people spilled from halted trams near the intersection, some passersby verbally confronted the protesters.
Violence broke out again a short time later outside Melbourne Central when a woman shouted at the demonstrators to move and stop blocking people “trying to get home”.
A trans-rights activist burns the Australian flag at the protest in the CBD.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The woman put her bag down and approached some of the protesters, who threw water on her and a fight broke out. Others tried to stop the scuffle.
Some witnesses clapped for the woman as she walked away, before she picked up her bag and swung it at the activists.
Yarra Trams staff could be seen monitoring the scene and directing the movement of trams, but police were not present at that point.
A group of young men followed the protesters to the State Library lawn, yelling “f--- trans rights”. The two groups clashed, and the activists chased the men down Swanston Street and into a small alley.
Police use pepper spray on a protester.Credit: Video grab: The Age
Victoria Police was asked to comment about why the demonstration was allowed to continue without police intervention.
Earlier, on the steps of parliament after the anti-trans rally, former Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick was involved in a scuffle.
Meddick, who was attending the pro-trans protest, got into a verbal altercation with a man after police tried to disperse the crowd and moved to keep the two groups apart. But the members from both sides came into contact on Macarthur Street.
The altercation descended into a struggle between the two men, and Meddick was pushed over.
Meddick has two transgender children.
Melbourne’s Women Will Speak rally is part of 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. It follows this month’s UK Supreme Court ruling, which decreed that for the purposes of Britain’s Equality Act, a woman is defined by her biological sex.
Before the rally, Victoria Police enacted special search-and-arrest powers to deter neo-Nazis from gatecrashing the women’s rights rally and planned counter-protest by trans activists.
The parliamentary precinct became a designated area, meaning people could be searched for weapons, told to remove face coverings and arrested if they refused police direction to leave.
Police search protesters on Spring Street before a planned pro-trans counter rally.Credit: Christopher Hopkins
Victoria Police said in a statement on Saturday afternoon that 38 searches had been conducted, both to remove prohibited face coverings and search for weapons, but no weapons were found.
The designated search area was active until 8pm on Saturday.
This is the first time such 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.
Liberal MP Bev McArthur was expected to speak but did not appear at the gathering, which was also attended by Victorian Libertarian MP David Limbrick.
Counter-protesters attempted to drown out the speeches with chants, and blasted music by Kylie Minogue on a large sound system.
Police searched pro-trans demonstrators using metal detectors as they approached the event.
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