Last night I drew a map of places of worship in and around Melbourne’s CBD w/ 150m exclusion zones around them. It shows that the new laws will make protests at common gathering places, parks, transport hubs and thoroughfares illegal /🧵
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In fact, the proposed laws come within metres of outlawing protest *outside the State Parliament itself*. Rallies at Parliament are already heavily police and surveilled but this comes within a hairs breadth of making them illegal
In fact, the proposed laws come within metres of outlawing protest *outside the State Parliament itself*. Rallies at Parliament are already heavily police and surveilled but this comes within a hairs breadth of making them illegal
Which brings me to the wider issue: the Premier floated 150m exclusion zones with reference to abortion clinic safe zones but there’s no guarantee that the distance won’t be *higher*. Here’s a map with 500m no-protest zones around places of worship:
I’ve seen a lot of talk about “democracy” and “freedom” and “civil liberties”. These are all abstract but just look at this map. The fact is that the state is using an instance of antisemitic violence to make protest *of all kinds* illegal across the city
How does the Victorian Government know if it was anti-Semitic violence if they don’t have the perpetrators or their motives? Church burnings in Melbourne were due to abuse of children in their own congregations.
Also worth noting the double standard: local govt’s cancelled more than a dozen LGBTQ events last year after threats and pickets from fascists which the cops/govt refused to do anything about
Violence is not hypothetical either: there’s been a dramatic rise in violent anti-Queer hate crimes like gay bashing. THH has been begging for an inquiry since at least 2019 and the community has waited *years* for anti-vilification laws
You illustrate the point really well already, but there's even more churches to add to the CBD like Southern Cross Church, Melbourne Madinah Mosque, St Verena & St Bishoy Coptic Church, Pentecost Melbourne, Acts Church. There's so many!
Smaller, evangelical etc churches are also starting to book space at local government/Council venues, then add the address in Google as their ‘church.’ Which would mean you cannot protest within 150m of Council buildings even in the burbs.
You’re so right, I forgot but did mean to say that this is by no means an exhaustive list of places of worship! So it’s high key even worse than it looks here (also wondered out loud on twitter if Aboriginal sacred sites would be included)
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If they all just left, problem solved
• climate crisis actions at Flinders St Station
• anti-genocide rallies at the State Library
• the annual Invasion Day march
• vigils at Fed Square
And the Premier does not seem to have taken into account that there are protests held with the permission of churches - for example: https://www.grandmothersforrefugees.com/gallery
https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/drag-storytime-perseveres-despite-threats-from-anti-lgbt-groups/227120
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/interview-thorne-harbour-health-ceo-simon-ruth-on-increase-in-homophobic-attacks/85vw5cgpp