Laura Ingraham had journalist Rukshan Fernando on her show to discuss his coverage of the violent protests occurring in Melbourne, Australia, throughout the week over lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
“In the course of what is just a short few months, Australia has gone from one of the world’s freest countries to what is essentially a bio-medical police state,” said Ingraham. “Things have become so unbearable that hundreds of Aussies took to the streets in Melbourne today.”
Public health orders from Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has successfully forced the people of Melbourne into compliance, resulting in over 230 days of hard lockdowns. These lockdowns included a 9:00 p.m. curfew and only allowing to leave the house for five reasons.
“I don’t know if you can hear, but there’s helicopters whirling about the city of Melbourne, there’s riot police on the street and they’re rounding up construction workers and tradespeople, that we commonly refer to as ‘tradies’ here, for voicing their incident and their concern about mandatory vaccination,” said Fernando.
Fernando is responsible for a large amount of the footage covering the escalating protests against unions’ vaccine mandates. (RELATED: Thousands Of Construction Workers Protested A Vaccine Mandate In Australia. Here’s How The Government Responded)
The Victorian police have reportedly escalated its tactics for suppressing the protests, which have been ongoing for days and have resulted in violence.
BREAKING: Police have just deployed tear gas to move on protestors. pic.twitter.com/nQ3NB0LLOC
— Suzan Delibasic (@suzandelibasic) September 22, 2021
The protesters in turn took a knee and invited the cops to join them
— Remy Varga (@RemyVarga) September 22, 2021
“I’ve grown up here my entire life in Australia, I can’t believe that I’m seeing this in my state as well,” said Fernando.
“For a moment I looked and I said, is this China?” said Ingraham. “China’s looking very rapaciously at Australia but it looked more like something at Tiananmen Square than you’d expect from Australia.”
“They are shooting at everyone now”#Australiapic.twitter.com/KL6hFAyUl3
— Darren of Plymouth 🇬🇧 (@DarrenPlymouth) September 22, 2021
Victoria Police appear to be using bean bag guns against the protesters pic.twitter.com/ON1ULhQEgw
— Remy Varga (@RemyVarga) September 20, 2021
“The government has said that protesting is illegal, you can’t be on the street,” said Fernando. “The police are using all sorts of tactics and measures against ordinary working class Australians.”
“That actual visual you talked about, that lady being pushed over, that was police trying to clear a road where there were protesters and even after she was pushed over, that particular police officer sprayed her in the face with OC spray,” alleged Fernando. “It is like Communist China.”
This is an elderly woman. pic.twitter.com/7cwNmFyu0Y
— Caldron Pool (@CaldronPool) September 18, 2021
Anti-Lockdown protesters clash with police on the streets of Melbourne’s inner east. pic.twitter.com/DNwt6YjBI2
— jason edwards (@jasonephoto) September 19, 2021
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“Australia is making China proud,” Ingraham concluded. Protesters are expected to regroup and continue their protests until demands are met, despite escalating threats and shows of force from police.