Scott Morrison has indicated frustration with pandemic restrictions is broader than the number of people engaging in violent protests outside Victoria’s parliament.
While the prime minister condemned the protests against Victoria’s pandemic laws, he reiterated comments that people have had enough of government-imposed COVID-19 measures.
“I completely and totally continue to denounce any violence, any threat, any intimidation – and any suggestion that I have not done that is completely false,” Mr Morrison told reporters on Friday.
“I don’t have sympathy for violence. I don’t have sympathy for intimidation or threats whatsoever.
“I have sympathies for Australians who have had a gutful of governments telling them what to do over the last two years.”
His previous comments had drawn criticism from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who has accused the prime minister of “double speaking to extremists”.
Demonstrators have attracted widespread criticism for their actions during the protests, including bringing gallows and nooses out the front of parliament.
While Mr Morrison said he denounced the protesters, he said frustration at pandemic laws and vaccine mandates was bigger than the demonstrations in Melbourne.
“You’re making an assumption that the frustration that Australians feel is only limited to a small group of people who have engaged in violence and threats,” he said.
“The broader view of Australians who have done the right thing and got vaccinated … (is that they) want their lives back and want governments to stop telling them what to do.”
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese urged the prime minister to unequivocally condemn the violent protests.
Mr Albanese also hit out at Mr Morrison’s comments urging an end to state-based vaccine mandates.
“The PM wants to claim credit at times for vaccination rates, but oppose all the measures that have been in place to lift those vaccination rates,” he told reporters.
“The prime minister of course failed to secure enough supply of vaccines, and then has gone about engaging in the word games he played yesterday.”
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles accused the coalition of picking a fight with Labor states.
“This undermines the vaccine rollout that is going on in WA and Queensland,” he said.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said Labor premiers were co-ordinating to pick “phoney fights” with the government.
“We’ve got to be really careful in terms of the approach that’s taken to maintain maximum confidence in Australians to actually get vaccinated,” he told Sky News.
“And that’s not by exacerbating political fights, it’s not by exacerbating partisan differences.”
Nationally, about 84 per cent of the 16-plus population is double-dosed and 91 per cent are partially protected.
Victoria has lifted almost all restrictions for the fully vaccinated as the state verges on a 90 per cent double-dose rate for people aged 12 and older.
It reported 1273 new cases and eight more deaths on Friday. NSW recorded 216 new infections and three additional deaths.
There were 17 more cases reported in the ACT on Friday .
Northern Territory officials confirmed a woman who illegally entered the Top End last month sparked an outbreak infecting 19 Indigenous people so far.
AAP
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