A far-right protester who was travelling to Melbourne to take part in anti-Islamic rallies at the weekend had a gun confiscated by police.
The Victorian chief police commissioner, Graham Ashton, has signalled a change in protest laws after anti-Islamic protesters clashed with anti-racism groups at the weekend, saying both sides were as bad as each other.
His attempts have been labelled “outrageous” by one of the anti-racism protest organisers who has accused police of trying to limit dissent.
When arguing for the need for changed laws, Ashton said a gun had been confiscated by New South Wales police from a bus carrying protesters. United Patriots Front (UPF) is the only known group that travelled from Sydney for the protests.
NSW police confirmed they confiscated a pistol from a 39-year-old man outside Central station on Friday night. The man is a registered gun owner and he was released while police investigated the safe keeping of the pistol.
Police used capsicum spray in the protests that saw UPF, Reclaim Australia, Rally Against Racism and United Against Islamophobia holding separate protests and clashing with each other.
Ashton said Victorian police had a problem with public order demonstrations and sections of communities wanting to take up issues with each other.
“Police are in the middle of that and as our assistant commissioner said the other day, both sides were as bad as each other on the weekend,” he told 3AW radio.
“Every advice that we were giving on how to avoid conflict, how to avoid physical protest clashes, were pretty much ignored. Elements of both sides were looking for trouble and police were smack in the middle of that and that’s the sort of thing that is going to be problematic for us.
“We’re going to do some work around public order management, not in the way we respond, because the weekend was a really good planned response and really good safety focus for our police on it too, but the sustainability of it, how to keep it going if it’s going to be a week-in-week-out thing is really going to test us.”
Ashton said constant protests would “absolutely” be a stretch on police resources and he planned to speak to the government about potential legislation that could be introduced.
Some protesters wore face masks and protective glasses on Saturday to guard against capsicum spray. When asked if this was illegal Ashton said, “Not at the moment.”
Yarra councillor Steve Jolly, one of the organisers of the anti-racism rallies, criticised Ashton for trying to limit protesters in Victoria.
“We’ve had a rally on Saturday where, from the right wing, somebody got charged with having a weapon, others were arrested from that crowd,” he said.
“The people on our side, none of whom had weapons, there’s no evidence anyone from our side was arrested and we’ve got police commissioner talking about tightening up protest laws.
“I think it’s outrageous. They’re looking for any excuse to make dissent harder.”
