Rewinding to a little earlier this morning, Victorian construction union boss John Setka has vowed to kick those who participate in violent protests out of the industry.
Mr Setka, CFMEU state secretary, said union staff have been trawling through CCTV and other footage on social media to identify construction workers who attacked its Melbourne headquarters on Monday.
Tempers fray outside the Melbourne office of the CFMEU on Monday.Credit:Chris Hopkins
“Let me tell you, people that were involved in the violent protest, they may as well go pick fruit in Mildura somewhere because they will not be working in our industry. We don’t need people like that,” he told ABC radio this morning.
“Our industry, we try and make it safe. We don’t need morons, drunken morons that think by throwing bottles at people, it’s a good way to protest. They can go somewhere else.”
The citywide protests were sparked when government shut the building industry for a fortnight on Monday night after a day of unprecedented and violent demonstration at the union’s head office in Elizabeth Street.
Windows were smashed, projectiles were thrown at senior officials and riot police used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.
Also on radio this morning, Mr Setka denied he was subservient to Premier Daniel Andrews, saying he had never even met or spoken with the Mr Andrews, and did not have his phone number.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slammed the anti-vaccine mandate protests in Melbourne.
“The protests are very concerning and that is unacceptable behaviour and particularly at a time when those in Victoria are dealing with lockdowns and many other stresses this is very concerning,” Mr Morrison said, speaking from Washington, D.C. where he is meeting world leaders.
He said he understood concern about the shutdown of the Victorian construction industry, but pointed out NSW had implemented similar restrictions and vaccine mandates on its building sector, which did not trigger violent protests.
“These are important jobs and they will return. We will get through this but protest activity and what we have seen there is highly distressing and that is not an appropriate response to trying to deal with an outbreak of this nature,” he said.
He said assistance payments were available to people out of work as a result of the pandemic.
Riot police have begun to converge on the city to block city streets.
Crime reporter Erin Pearson is on the scene and says hundreds of police have blocked Elizabeth Street near the Queen Victoria Market.
No protestors are in sight at that location as of 10.50am.
While the public order response team stand in formation across Elizabeth Street, near Therry Street, more officers are arriving on buses and the police helicopter is hovering overhead.
Police are checking permits and essential workers can pass through.
Riot police block Elizabeth Street.Credit:Erin Pearson
Police have already made arrests ahead of the protest kicking-off, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent told radio station 3AW a short time ago.
“There’s been a couple of arrests so far,” Deputy Commissioner Nugent said.
Crime reporter Erin Pearson is on the scene and said the arrests occurred on the corner of Therry and Elizabeth streets.
Police have already made arrests this morning.Credit:Erin Pearson
While the protests have not yet started, Mr Nugent said police were still expecting it to occur.
Mr Nugent said police were checking the identification of people coming into the city, letting people through who had work in the CBD.
Victorian Trades Hall secretary and prominent Melbourne unionist Luke Hilakari was speaking on Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise earlier this morning.
As previously reported, the construction union is against mandatory vaccination. However, it is encouraging members to speak to their doctor.
“I would say to every tradie that is listening right now, go and get a vaccination,” Mr Hilakari said.
“It is the number one thing you can do to keep your workplace, your family and your friends are safe. Think about everyone else working on that frontline, including nurses, we all have a healthcare worker in the family. I certainly do, she is my mum. Think of them.“
Mr Hilakari also stressed that yesterday’s protesters do not represent the majority of unionists, let alone construction workers.
“When we think of the construction industry in Victoria, what we would have seen on Monday is maybe about 200 to 300 construction union members here out of an industry of 300,000. It is such a small minority that are upset.”
Mr Andrews was asked whether, given the 337 cases across the construction industry, it should have been shut down earlier.
“That’s a very important point,” Mr Andrews said.
“I don’t know whether it would have been a significant difference, we don’t know that. What we can focus on now is what we can change, is to get people vaccinated to get the industry back open. And follow the rules at building sites large and small.
“And the reports that we had been getting are very significant issues of non-compliance, people just not taking those safety rules seriously. And the thing about it - that’s a matter of fatigue.
“Safety is a very serious cultural issue in a broader sense on every building site. So it speaks to fatigue, I think, and speaks to those sort of issues but we can’t allow ourselves to be fatigued.
“We need to get through this, get vaccinated and do it and get every industry open. We’re so, so close. We’re so close to being able to end this lockdown and put this behind us.
“We just got to focus on that on getting vaccinated not on being violent. That achieves nothing. It doesn’t work against this virus.”
Apologies for the slow blog posts. Just dealing with rocking screens, smashing glass and scared children at my place in north-east Melbourne. Here’s our breaking take on the earthquake that just hit Victoria.
Back to Premier Daniel Andrews at this morning’s press conference, and the issue of mandatory vaccinations.
“Mandatory vaccination of the construction sector is a decision of the Chief Health Officer and it is essential,” Mr Andrews said this morning.
“As I just said to you, there are more cases of COVID in construction than there are in aged care. Aged care is vaccinated, construction is not vaccinated. It is important if you want to get this industry open. That’s what motivates all of us.
“We have worked so hard to keep it open right throughout this pandemic. That’s why people who have been closed for the best part of two years must be scratching their heads and be furious to think that an industry that’s been open has had to be closed because we got cases.
“Because we have got real compliance issues, there were, there were real compliance issues in the lead-up to that decision. The decision to close it is on health advice. I want to get it open as soon as we can.”
Mr Andrews said he didn’t want a situation where the virus was “running rampant” through the industry.
“It’s a big industry and it puts at risk all of our targets, all of our hospital services capacity.
“Like, no worker in construction or any other industry has an entitlement to make the work of our nurses harder. No one has that entitlement. Please go and get vaccinated.”
A question about neo Nazis has been raised with Chief Commissioner Shane Patton, and he confirmed that police had been watching the crowd yesterday for known individuals.
“I’m not clear whether we had right-ring extremism yesterday present in the crowd. We have over the last couple of protests, we have had representation from those groups and we are aware they’re participating,” he said.
The Chief Commissioner was also asked whether police should have moved earlier to quell the angry mob yesterday.
“Look, hindsight is a wonderful thing and it’s a very easy thing to sit back in an armchair and consider what could have, should have, or might have occurred,” he said.
“All I can say is that that was a very fluid and very challenging environment that took place yesterday.
“The police commanders who were involved, the police on the ground did everything they could to ensure public safety. We’ll review and see whether there were opportunities that we might have missed and if we did, we’ll improve on those.”
Victoria’s Chief Commissioner of Police, Shane Patton, said more than 500 police officers faced protesters across the city on Tuesday.
He would not reveal the tactics to be used by police to quell anti-lockdown protests on Wednesday, but said he would be “very surprised if you see any cat and mouse games today”.
“I don’t intend to try to give any perceived advantage or any context to any person who may be organising or coming in for a protest,” he said.
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton.Credit:Getty
“I want them to be completely unaware what we’re going to do and what capacity they may face.”
He was also asked to guarantee whether members of the public would be safe if they were sitting in cars on freeways surrounded by protesters.
“No police commissioner anywhere in the world can give any guarantee when you have a large group of several thousand angry men predominantly intent on taking over an area or being confrontational with police,” he said.
“No law enforcement agency anywhere in the world or commissioner can give any guarantees to that.
“The only guarantee I can give you is that we will act swiftly and we do everything we can to prevent that occurring.”
Chief Commissioner of Police Shane Patton said he understood Victorians were tired of lockdowns, but rioting was not the answer.
“I certainly understand that people are fatigued, they’re tired, they have got grievances and they’re frustrated, but now is not the time for protest,” he said.
“The Chief Health Officer is still determined that there are guidelines in place that prohibit mass gatherings, large gatherings and groups of people and the risk of the spread of the coronavirus is quite real in those gatherings.
“So we will do everything we can to stop the gatherings in compliance with the chief health officer guidelines. We don’t get to pick and choose the laws we enforce.
“I’d simply say this – I would implore, I plead, I’d ask, any other word that I can use, to say to people who are contemplating coming in here today to protest – do not do so. You’re not going to be welcomed with open arms, I can assure you of that.
“What is going to occur: Victoria Police have planned, we have significant tactics in place, we will be agile in our response, we will be very swift in our response and conduct as we have seen yesterday and the previous day will not be tolerated.”
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton, flanked by Premier Daniel Andrews, speaks to media this morning.Credit:Wayne Taylor
However, Chief Commissioner Patton declined to outline the force’s plan today.
“I’m not going to step through the amount of police that we’re going to have on deck today, I’m not going to talk about what our tactics are save to say that those tactics will be different and we have significant police numbers.”
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2021-09-22 01:19:13Z
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