Violence broke out again a short time later outside Melbourne Central when a woman began shouting at the demonstrators to move and stop blocking people “trying to get home”.
The woman put her bag down and approached some of the protesters, who threw water on her and a fight began. Others tried to stop the scuffle.
Police use pepper spray on a protester.Credit: Video grab: The Age
Some witnesses clapped the woman as she walked away, then she picked up her bag and swung it at the activists.
Yarra Trams staff could be seen monitoring the scene and directing the movement of trams, but police were not present at that point.
A group of young men followed the protesters to the State library lawn, yelling “f— trans rights”. The activists then retaliated and chased the group down Swanston Street.
The protesters began their action earlier on Saturday afternoon as a counterprotest to an anti-trans rally outside Parliament House earlier in the day.
Police search protestors on Spring Street before a planned pro-trans counter rally.Credit: Christopher Hopkins
At the earlier gathering, former Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick was involved in a physical scuffle after the women’s rights rally on the steps of parliament.
Protesters played drums and chanted while the Women Will Speak event occurred.
Around 50 to 100 attendees to the women’s rights rally listened to speeches at midday.
Meddick, who was attending the pro-trans protest, got into a verbal altercation with a man following the conclusion of the Women Will Speak rally.
Police had just dispersed the crowd and moved to keep the two protests apart. But the members from both sides came into contact on Macarthur Street.
The altercation descended into a struggle between the two men, and Meddick was pushed over.
Meddick has two transgender children, Kielan and Eden.
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Melbourne’s Women Will Speak rally is part of the global Let Women Speak movement, which argues that laws promoting trans inclusion have eroded sex-based rights and intruded unreasonably into women’s spaces. It follows this month’s UK Supreme Court ruling, which decreed that for the purposes of Britain’s Equality Act, a woman is defined by her biological sex.
Ahead of the event, Victoria Police enacted special search and arrest powers to deter neo-Nazis from gatecrashing the women’s rights rally and planned counter-protest by trans activists.
The parliamentary precinct became a designated area, meaning people could be searched for weapons, told to remove face coverings and arrested if they refused police direction to leave.
This is the first time such police powers have been used to protect an event associated with the Let Women Speak movement, which has provoked confrontations between feminists and trans activists around the world, and two years ago in Melbourne, when far-right agitators performed a Nazi salute on the steps of state parliament.
Liberal MP Bev McArthur was expected to speak but did not appear at the gathering, which was also attended by Victorian Libertarian MP David Limbrick.
Counter-protesters attempted to drown out the speeches with chants, and blasted music by Kylie Minogue on a large sound system.
Police searched pro-trans demonstrators using metal detectors as they approached the event.
A large Victoria Police presence kept watch from the corner of Bourke and Spring streets, with both protests separated by a large police blockade about 50 metres wide across the intersection.
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