Victoria’s police minister has backed the actions of officers who used pepper spray and rubber bullets against demonstrators in Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday.
Police used force to separate thousands of people involved in an anti-immigration march from a counter-protest group yesterday.
Two police officers suffered injuries as they tried to keep the groups apart at the northern end of Melbourne’s CBD.
One protester was dragged out of the crowd and attended to after being sprayed by police. (ABC News: Natasha Schapova)
Commander Wayne Cheeseman said officers were pelted with rocks, glass bottles and rotten fruit and responded with pepper spray, rubber bullets and flashbangs to subdue protesters.
He said some members of the counter-protest group came specifically to attack police.
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On Monday Police Minister Anthony Carbines said officers had every right to deploy crowd control measures.
“They would not have had to deploy that operational equipment unless they felt it was necessary and we certainly back them in the work that they did to maintain the peace,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“We don’t make any apologies for people using every operational tactic that they can to maintain peace.
“The question is, what would it had been like if police were not present yesterday?
“A lot of it also comes down to a lack of respect from people in the community who think they can behave with impunity.”
At a press conference following the clashes on Sunday Commander Cheeseman showed journalists a number of projectiles he said were thrown at officers.
A 30-year-old woman was arrested.
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A counter-protester told ABC Radio Melbourne she did not see anyone throwing objects at police.
She said she was splattered with pepper spray that was directed at a person near her.
“There wasn’t any violence coming from the counter protest and the actual pepper spraying and that sort of stuff came completely out of the blue from the police,” she said.
“I didn’t see anybody throwing anything and I was right up the front.
“Certainly at any protest there are going to be people with stronger feelings and are more angry than others, but I didn’t see anything like that.”
The woman’s account was disputed by the police minister, who said he did not have “much sympathy” for anyone who was pepper-sprayed yesterday.
“You’re not going to get pepper-sprayed unless you’re right up under the nose of Victoria Police causing violence and disrupting the community,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“People choose to see and don’t see.
“It’s pretty clear to everybody watching on television last night.”