Anti-blockade protests broke out in Australia. What are the specific circumstances?

On October 23, 2020, local time, anti-epidemic blockade protests broke out in Melbourne, Australia. About two to three hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the Melbourne War Memorial to protest against the government's blockade measures. A large number of demonstrators refused to wear masks or pulled them up to their chins, holding signs with slogans such as "The media is the virus", "Coronavirus is a hoax" and "Australians wake up".

Chanting slogans such as “The new coronavirus is a hoax”. Some demonstrators had physical conflicts with the police and even struggled with each other, and the police had to use pepper spray to subdue them. According to local police, three police officers were injured and 16 protesters were arrested.

Extended information:

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s news on the 3rd, Victoria Governor Andrews promised to announce the state’s “unblocking road map” this Sunday. It is reported that although the epidemic situation has improved, Andrews will not announce the immediate lifting of the state's Level 4 restrictions, but will continue to observe changes in the epidemic situation.

On the 2nd, Andrews changed the extension of the state emergency to 6 months instead of the originally planned extension of 12 months. The reason was that it did not receive support from the opposition parties, who believed that the 12-month extension was an "excessive use of government power."

Global Network-Anti-epidemic lockdown protests broke out in Australia. Demonstrators refused to wear masks and got into trouble with the police