Sky News Australia – Oct 23, 2020
Premier Daniel Andrews says protesting is still illegal under the Chief Health Officer’s directions despite eased restrictions permitting up to 10 people from two households to gather outdoors ahead of a planned protest at the Shrine of Remembrance.
“The shrine is a sacred place and not only is it wrong to protest, it is not safe, it is unlawful and it is frankly shameful that anyone would seek to protest any issue at such a special place,” he said.
“It symbolises with more than a little irony the fact that many, many people died to give people the right to protest. The least you can do, if you are determined to protest, don’t go there, but I’d say you should stay at home because Victoria Police have enough to get on with.
“Protests don’t work against this virus and potentially put at risk all the good work we are done.”
Mr Andrews said protesters with placards were very different from people gathering for a picnic, claiming protesters put those settings at risk.
“Now is not the time for it. There will be a time for that and it is a really important part of our democratic system, not at the shrine, I might add, but in a broader sense people can have their views but it’s an unusual year and we’d like it to end,” he said.