australia construction workers
© AAP Image/James Ross via REUTERS.Construction workers and far right activists protest against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) restrictions on the West Gate Freeway in Melbourne.
Police in Melbourne used pepper balls and rubber pellets on Thursday to scatter thousands of protesters who defied stay-at- home orders to damage property, block a busy freeway and injure three officers, leading to over 40 arrests, authorities said.

It was the second day of demonstrations in the locked-down Australian city after authorities shut construction sites for two weeks, saying workers' frequent movement was spreading the coronavirus.


Comment: Construction workers were considered 'essential' across much of the planet and worked throughout the last 18 months' of lockdowns; what changed? It's perhaps no coincidence that just as the construction companies are threatening workers with the sack if they don't get the vaccine that suddenly the government is now, essentially, calling them super spreaders: 'F**k the jab!': CHAOS in Australia as construction workers violently protest vaccine mandate outside union HQ


"This has been a really challenging environment for us," Shane Patton, police commissioner in the southeastern state of Victoria, told reporters, adding that the protests were unlawful.

Television and social media showed video images of protesters marching through the streets, sending up flares, chanting and attacking police cars, surrounded by mounted police and officers in riot gear.

The protesters included not only construction workers but opponents of mandatory vaccinations and Victoria's extended lockdown, who cursed the jab, state premier Dan Andrews and the workers' union leader, who had backed vaccination for members.

"Acts of violence and disruption won't result in one less case of Covid - in fact it only helps the virus to spread," Andrews, the state premier, said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The halt in building activities followed a protest against a vaccine mandate that turned violent on Monday. The state requires all construction workers to receive at least one vaccine dose by the end of this week.

"The public health team was left with no choice but to hit the pause button and continue to work with the sector over the next two weeks to improve compliance," state Health Minister Martin Foley told reporters.


Comment: "Improve compliance" is doublespeak for coercion. And it's a tactic governments across the planet are engaged in.


The forced closures of building sites will worsen Australia's economic woes, with some economists forecasting the extended lockdowns could push the €1.24tn economy into a second recession in as many years.


Comment: Apparently there's an agenda afoot that is more important to the pathocrats than the economy.


Australia has locked down its largest cities of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the capital, Canberra, to rein in an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

But the tough curbs have triggered anti-lockdown rallies with police arresting hundreds in both cities over the weekend.

Tuesday's 603 new infections in Victoria were the highest daily figure this year, with one new death recorded.

Authorities have begun to ease some strictures on outdoor gatherings and exercise in Sydney and Melbourne as vaccination rates rise, with more freedom promised once 70% to 80% of adults in the population have received both vaccine doses.

Until now, 53pc have been fully vaccinated in the state of New South Wales, home to Sydney, while in Victoria the coverage is 44pc.


Comment: The continued resistance of Australian citizens to suffer the experimental and unnecessary injections is rather impressive.


New South Wales reported 1,022 new infections, the majority in Sydney, its capital, up from Monday's figure of 935, and 10 deaths.

Even with the Delta outbreaks, Australia's COVID-19 infections are lower than many comparable nations, with 88,700 cases and 1,178 deaths.