Worthy but unwise

Premier wary of rally spread

PREMIER Daniel Andrews says it is too early to know if Melbourne’s Black Lives Matter protest has caused COVID-19 to spread in the community.

More than 10,000 people marched from Victoria’s parliament to Flinders Street Station on Saturday in solidarity with anti-racism protesters in the US after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

Many wore masks and gloves and used hand sanitiser as they also protested the treatment of indigenous people by Australian police, but the large numbers meant many could not follow medical advice to stay 1.5m apart.

Police said they would fine the protest organisers $1652 each for breaching the chief health officer’s directives and Mr Andrews described the protest as irresponsible.

“A worthy cause but a fundamentally irresponsible thing to do, we won’t know the results of that for another two weeks,” he said yesterday.

He urged protesters to be tested if they developed coronavirus symptoms.

But he said it was not feasible to fine everyone who attended the protest, nor shut down Melbourne’s CBD.

“As Victoria Police made very clear, we weren’t able to stop people, you can’t lock 10,000 people up, you just can’t do that,” Mr Andrews said.

“But the rules are there for a reason, the rules are there for every single Victorian, not just the vulnerable.”

Mr Andrews acknowledged Victoria’s poor record on indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody, noting indigenous people made up 3 per cent of the population but up to 50 per cent of those in youth justice and 25-to-30 per cent of adult prisoners.

“It is something we should all be ashamed of — the fact that so many indigenous Australians are behind bars and that so many die so young,” he said.