Australians in their thousands from across the country have gathered in Canberra this morning to protest against vaccine mandates.
A seemingly endless stream of people were seen crossing Commonwealth Bridge heading towards Parliament House with more still on their way and in all directions.
Canberra Daily was on site early this morning and noticed a positive, upbeat vibe amongst the protesters with many singing ‘I am, you are, we are Australian’ as it played out across speakers.
There are many Australian, Eureka Stockade and red ensigns flags as well as a large number of signs, including some that read ‘COVID is the greatest IQ test in history’, ‘We say yes to freedom’ and ‘Even my dog understands no’.
The crowd was filled with all sorts of Australians, from farmers, tradies and truckies to ordinary families and mothers pushing prams.
CW spoke to a scientist from Victoria who said he had lost his job because he had made an informed decision, based on scientific evidence, to not be injected with a Covid vaccine. His wife was about to lose her job for the same reason. They said they were protesting, along with their daughter, to protect a basic human right to determine what medical procedures or pharmaceuticals they agreed to undergo.
There is also a large police presence in the area with ACT Policing ramping up their response due to the increase in expected crowd numbers.
Lifeline Canberra were forced to make the difficult decision to close their bookfair today due to the large vaccine mandate protest camp gathered at EPIC.
People are still encouraged to donate to Lifeline via this link in an effort to continue raising funds for the worthy cause.
Lifelife will provide an update this evening on opening hours for tomorrow should they be allowed to open.
Lifeline Canberra CEO Carrie Leeson said an additional 10 to 15 thousand people arrived at EPIC overnight with unpleasant behaviour from some in the camp and security fencing pushed over near the bookfair.
“It wasn’t a pleasant experience for so many of our community who came out to support us,” Leeson told ABC Radio this morning.
“It was hard to watch.”
Morrison understands protests
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he understands the concerns of vaccine mandate protesters.
Mr Morrison says the protesters are “speaking up for the things they feel strongly about” and asked them to follow police directions.
“Australia is a free country and they have a right to protest. I would ask them to do that in a peaceful and respectful way,” he told reporters.
He said the federal government had only ever supported mandates for aged care and disability workers, as well as health workers in high-risk situations.
“All other mandates that relate to vaccines have been imposed unilaterally by state governments. They have not been put in place by the commonwealth government … so understand their concerns about these issues,” he said.
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