Our political class cannot comprehend why people who have been locked in their homes for the better part of two years yesterday took to the streets in the middle of a pandemic.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said protesters “should be ashamed of themselves” and lamented that “we can’t vaccinate against selfishness”.
He told a press conference yesterday: “I’m making a serious point. I don’t know what half of them were protesting against!”
When a reporter volunteered the answer, “You”, Andrews shot back, “Well then good on them, except it’s illegal.”
His New South Wales counterpart Gladys Berejiklian said she was “utterly disgusted” at the protests while her Deputy Police Commissioner condemned the protesters’ “filthy, risky behaviour”.
Former Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan, a great conspiracy theory fan, retweeted suggestions the protests were organised by the same “far-right forces behind the Jan 6 attack on the US Congress”.
Kevin Rudd called it “mob rule”.
ABC journalists, comfortable in their taxpayer-funded jobs, were quick to label protesters as stupid and uneducated.
Radio host Patricia Karvelas said: “I’m genuinely shocked that there are that many people stupid enough to protest and spread a virus that might kill them. My brain hurts.”