PROTESTERS NOT BOUND BY GATHERINGS LIMIT
Black Lives Matter Protest in Sydney
Click to enlarge
The rest of the community will be fined if we fail to observe social distancing in private and public gatherings, such as the limits on people attending church, funerals, restaurants and sporting events etc while the State’s economy is still in virtual lock down yet thousands of protesters will be allowed to assemble and protest in the main streets of Sydney and Melbourne, in sympathy with US Black Lives Matter. As one TV commentator said to the effect: “If there is a significant outbreak of covid-19 virus, as a result of granting special dispensation to the crowds attending these protests, then all the fines and draconian restrictions imposed on our people’s movements in recent months would have all been for nothing”.
What we have now is a situation where it will be unreasonable to impose fines in the future after such a wholesale breach of regulations has been sanctioned. This makes a mockery of the hard and tedious work required of police who were asked to enforce draconian measures such as knocking on doors to see that people had remained at home or to impose fines on drivers with passengers who failed to provide a legitimate reason for being away from home etc..
Protesters Defy Social Distancing Restrictions in Melbourne Click to enlarge
From 11:59pm on 31 May the following changes came into effect.
Gatherings
- Private gatherings increase to a total of 20 people in a house, including members of the household.
- Public gatherings, both indoor and outdoor, will increase to 20.
- Weddings increase to 20 people, plus the celebrant and the couple.
- Both indoor and outdoor funerals increase to 50 people, plus people reasonably required to conduct the funeral.
- Private worship or small religious ceremonies increase to up to 20 people plus people reasonably required for the ceremony.
Business, travel, retail and personal services
- Auction houses, real estate auctions and open house inspections increase to 20 people plus the minimum number reasonably required to facilitate.
- Restaurants, cafes and pubs can open and serve meals for up to 20 patrons per space. Alcohol with meals only.
- Overnight stays in private residences allowed.
- Camping and tourist accommodation allowed if no use of shared facilities.
- Beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons, spas, tattoo parlours, massage parlours to open with up to 20 patrons.
- Non-food and drink market stalls to open.
Sports and recreation
- Community facilities to open, with no more than 20 people in a single space plus those reasonably required to run the space.
- Indoor and outdoor pools to open, to maximum 20 patrons and limit of 3 people per lane in each pool.
- Galleries, museums, national institutions, historic sites, outdoor amusement parks, drive-in cinemas, zoos and arcades to open with up to 20 patrons per space, while ensuring density limits are applied to the entire venue.
- Non-contact outdoor sporting activities will increase to 20 people plus the instructor.
From 11:59pm on 21 June – and in line with the most up-to-date advice of the Chief Health Officer – the following changes will be made:
- Increased number of patrons in restaurants, cafes and pubs with up to 50 patrons per space.
- Increase number of patrons in galleries, museums, national institutions, historic sites, outdoor amusement parks, zoos and arcades to up to 50 patrons per space, while ensuring density quotient is applied to the entire venue.
- Ski season to start
- Indoor sports centres and physical recreation venues, including gyms to open with up to 20 people per single undivided indoor space and up to 10 people per group/activity at any one time.
- Indoor cinemas, movie theatres, concert venues, theatres, arenas, auditoriums, stadiums to open with up to 50 seated patrons per space.
We continue to encourage Victorians to use their common sense when it comes to their activities.
Because we all have a part to play. And it’s up to all of us to make this work.
Police can issue fines for non-compliance with these restrictions.
For more information, you can see a comprehensive list of Frequently asked questions about Directions by the Victorian Chief Health at the Department of Health and Human Services.
See the gradual easing of restrictions at the Department of Health and Human Services for more detail about the easing of restrictions from 11.59pm on 12 May 2020.
19 Comments
This is madness if the protests are allowed to proceed. All the job losses, businesses going broke, the financial hardships on our families and the stress on our medical system will all be in vain if these protests are allowed to proceed. We have the virus under control at the moment because we are able to trace the transmission source of the Virus and isolate infected patients but how are we to cope with a crowd of 20,000 people if there are outbreaks.
DUMB… DUMB ..DUMB
Its okay for up to 40,000 protesters to gather and march together but not the general public who are limited to 20 people. We may as well open up the borders and remove restrictions if these protests go ahead. There is talk that 50 spectators may be allowed into the MCG to watch an AFL game later this year!
What’s good for the protesters should be good for the rest of the community, lift the restrictions and open up the borders in Queensland, NT, WA and SA.
Daniel Andrews the Victorian premier was caught flat footed after the NSW government had gone to the supreme court this afternoon to stop the protest in Sydney. All Andrews was prepared to do was to fine the leaders of the protest but that won’t stop them marching in Melbourne.
The biased, extreme left-wing philosophy on the ABC comes as no surprise. It is their trade mark. Just look at who she interviews and how she interviews people. She is a key part of the ABC shock troop division, mostly women, who have given up any pretense of journalism, preferring to assess everything around her personal prejudices and ABC group think.
Regardless of which way one looks at these protesters they are not adhering to social distancing rules. They are risking the health of the rest of the population which they have no right to do.
All the hard work and the millions of dollars paid in compensation by the government to job keep etc have been thrown away by a mob who have no regard for the health of the nation …what an insult to all the people whose businesses have collapsed and the sacrifices and the bankruptcies that have occurred due these Virus restrictions. These people are not concerned about the welfare of anybody.
Let’s be perfectly clear about all this. The Government is not trying to shut down the Black Lives Matter protests because they care about public health. …No they are doing it because it’s against their own interests for Australians to care about black lives.
Good old jelly back supreme court judge announces a decision to ban the protests in Sydney then caves in due to fear of back lash.
After all the jobs losses, the isolation because of the lock down, it is now open slather, we may as well lift restrictions because it has all been for nothing. We were told less than a month ago that we could not visit our mothers. Now we are allowing thousands of people to gather and march in our biggest City. If there is a spike in infections, and there surely will be, how will we trace the source of transmission? Where was our health department in the supreme court action? How can we now fine people for attending gatherings of more than 20 people?
How many people will be fined? Answer.. None. They will not pay the fines because the supreme court have now ruled the rally as LEGAL. So why did they say they were going to be fined?
If any of these protesters are really sincere about the plight of aboriginal people the first thing they must do is to find out what is really happening by going there and working among their communities and the local police force.
Why is there not more being done about child sexual abuse among aboriginal families. Measures centred around community-based responses which can empower indigenous Australians are needed, in order to protect indigenous children from the serious levels of sexual abuse which they are currently experiencing.
At least do some research!
There was one individual at the “protest” that held up a sign which said All Lives Matter and was mobbed by a group of anarchists.
I didn’t mind the Global Warming Con because it was not violent but this new religion is inciting mob rule and this is bad news for Law and Order.
The Black Lives Matter movement will not benefit from these rallies, in fact, their cause will be diminished in the public eye going forward. They will be remembered for their selfishness and willingness to endanger the health of the broader community.
The complete disregard for the sacrifices of the vast majority of peace loving Australians have had to make in adhering to Covid-19 restrictions.
Just a couple of weeks ago health officials were insisting that unconstitutional lock downs continue to be enforced on innocent citizens. We could not play golf, there was no jig-a-jig allowed with a partner who does not live on the premises, we had to substitute hand shakes by elbow to elbow contact, no proper funerals and we could not see our mother on mother’s day.
But it is okay for 40,000 black lives matter protesters to jam into our city streets.
Dangerous Double standards…..You Betcha!
There were approximately 40,000 BLM protesters at the rallies in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide and 24,960,000 law abiding people that did not attend. I am so disappointed that our labor party would condone these protests. I could not imagine Bob Hawke or Paul Keating putting up with this rubbish. We are supposed to be the party for the worker but we have not had any wage increases for more than 11 years instead they are supporting extremists who want to create chaos. They are more interested in getting into bed with the greens.
Stop using our aboriginal people as your motive for protesting when you know nothing of what is happening in their communities. If you really want to help our black people get off your fat arses and get up here.
“The silence of the victims has brought so much fear and pain into their lives. The silence of families has caused a breakdown in our cultural and moral values, and the silence of the abuser has meant little hope of them getting the sort of help they need”.
– Maryanne Sam (1992) ‘Through Black Eyes: A Handbook of Family Violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities.’
THE MADNESS OF CROWDS
Andrews had looked very impressive in the no nonsense way he enforced the restrictions but it all fell apart, when questioned on the eve of the protest, all he could say was that the protest leaders would be fined which everyone knew would not happen.
The mob leaders would not be prevented from breaking the social distancing rules but the rest of the community would if they did. That was the message from our “leaders” on the eve of rally.
The police had to rescue one marcher who held up a sign which said All Lives Matter. You could see that the mob were intent on beating him up.