Victoria Police’s decision not to issue fines to 10,000 people who attended the June 6 Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne’s CBD may have been unlawful, according to legal advice prepared by leading workplace relations QC Stuart Wood.
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“For Victoria Police to … make a general policy decision not to enforce the directions against a certain group of people at a certain time is to effectively refuse to give the assistance requested (to enforce public health directions under the act),” Mr Wood found.

“To simply decide not to enforce the directions against any protester had the practical consequence that (unlike every other Victorian everywhere else in the state), the directions did not apply to those people.”

IPA research fellow Morgan Begg called for the terms of reference of Victoria‘s judicial inquiry into the bungling of its hotel quarantine system to be broadened to include the police and Andrews government’s handling of the protest.
“The legal advice notes the potentially unlawful decision may even expose Victoria Police — and therefore the state’s taxpayers — to civil claims that will add to the enormous cost of the government’s inept pandemic response,” Mr Begg said.
“Thousands of protesters were allowed to take to the streets in an environment in which all other Victorians lived under the strict rules against public gatherings of more than 20 people.
“The state government’s response to the protest highlighted the mismanagement and arbitrary decision-making that has characterised the entire pandemic response.”

On the day of the protest there were 71 known active cases of coronavirus in Victoria, 14 of which had at that stage been linked to breaches in hotel quarantine, and the majority of which were in quarantined overseas travellers.

On Tuesday, Victoria‘s tally of known active cases reached 3147.

The_Barnacle wrote on Jul 19^th, 2020 at 10:46am:


You seem to be missing freediver's point of view about the differences between going to the beach and walking among other protesters. Perhaps it is because I only see beaches of Yeppoon and Emu Park that I don't consider beaches to be overcrowded. But you are in closer contact with people who are protesting the same thing you are doing, that becomes the problem. Protesters are usually in close contact because it gives the idea of "strength in numbers" to improve their message's impact. That is why protests during a pandemic is considered a bad idea.

Frank wrote on Jul 21^st, 2020 at 6:52pm:

It's pretty damn obvious that the Black Lies Morons rally was an incubator for CV.

But the grubberment and their lapdog, the media will never admit it.

Mass protests by "always" ever vocal and worthless groups are an ideal way to spread disease.

Disease of the mind as well as the body.

A logarithmic decline in IQ is noted at these rally.

The higher the number, the lower the collective IQ.

I believe that any attending the Black Lies Morons rally

Should be immediately incarcerated in secure facility, fed their staple diet of KFC and Pizza.

And left for 4 weeks to ensure the virus is dead.
This is started again every time a new case is found, so it could be a very long incarceration indeed.

There will be little or no impact on industry (except the abbo industry of course)

And the crime rate will drop drastically.

Oh, and as it's self inflicted, no treatment for any who get the virus.

freediver wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2020 at 7:00am:



No - it just shows that a standing prick has no conscience.

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2020 at 10:43pm:


You are confused.

It takes a week or two for symptoms to first appear. People who caught the virus at the protest would have been spreading it around that whole time, until they got symptoms and eventually got tested. And that's assuming they got tested.

freediver wrote on Jul 24^th, 2020 at 8:13pm:


I think I basically said what you said in your second paragraph. The graph shown had a big spike in the month after the protests. I would bet that most protesters just went on with their self-important lives and just spread the disease among their crew. Then their friends and family would have spread it to their friends, family and co-workers. That could account for a spike upward in covid19 cases inside 2 weeks. Not a month.

Ultimately the virus came from overseas. But that does not mean the protesters didn't spread it. Even the Victorian government was honest enough to admit that most of the recent cases are local transmission.