Protest is, axiomatically, protest. It doesn't bow to rules in ordinary times, and it doesn't tend to bow to them in extraordinary times either. Canberrans gathered in their hundreds on Friday in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protesters in the United States and to highlight injustices in our own society.
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That they did so at a time when we are still emerging from strict COVID-19 restrictions, watchful that the virus is still out there, was predictably controversial. Liberal senator Zed Seselja spoke out against the demonstrations in a piece for The Canberra Times, telling Australians the protests were "absolutely wrong".
Presbyterian Minister David Campbell said he was "disgusted" Canberrans had been allowed to gather in their hundreds on Friday in solidarity, while his congregations were still restricted.
"My congregation will not be allowed to sing hymns and yet these protesters can go on the streets and shout and bawl and nothing can be done," Rev Campbell said. "I'm totally disgusted."
The coronavirus has changed the world but it hasn't changed the importance of questioning, scrutinising, challenging, and yes, protesting. And what people have seen in the US this past week or so, and their own reflections on our own shames in relation to race, has inspired many to take the action of public protest.
Of course, not everyone will have seen that their motivations justified the breach of lockdown rules. Those people are entitled to their opinion and their disapproval. We've all worked hard to keep the virus suppressed, and we can easily see the way the protests in the US might have a terrible byproduct in weeks to come.
But shock jocks and politicians should not pillory those to whom Friday's protest meant so much, and who determined that attending it was worth a risk.
To suggest Australian governments should ban protest events, with the implication that the ban would then be enforced by police, is not only to risk escalation, it utterly misses the import of the moment.
Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison quoted a meme he had seen on social media that trumpeted Martin Luther King's commitment to peaceful protest. It was a most unwise instinct on the part of the Prime Minister to co-opt the greatest leader the US civil rights movement has had to make some throwaway, context-free point on Sydney radio about his discomfort at the American protests.
As a young church minister Martin Luther King Jr. organised the Montgomery bus boycott that saw Rosa Parks arrested for sitting (yes, illegally sitting) in a seat reserved for white people. That boycott and Rosa Park's illegal action finally ended segregation.
The United States is fighting for its identity, its future as a world leader, and the things that made it great.
Violence is never acceptable. But civil disobedience is not something that should earn tut-tutting opprobrium of the kind that sees every new leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions face nonsensical questioning about their commitment to obey every law. Civil disobedience is an important part of a democracy.
Mr Morrison is taking a risk with the public's health as he urges the economy to reopen, but it is a risk he judges, rightly or wrongly, to be worth taking when balanced against other risks to the economy and jobs.
The Presbyterian minister is allowed 20 people at a church service and 50 at a funeral. Clubs and pubs are open again in Sydney where the bulk of coronavirus cases occurred, with 50 allowed at a venue. In Canberra, we are back in restaurants with 20 diners at a time, and in the gym. Every time we consider taking up one of these opportunities we judge the risk.
To suggest Australian governments should ban protest events, with the implication that the ban would then be enforced by police, is not only to risk escalation, it utterly misses the import of the moment. A much more nuanced message was delivered by Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy, who warned that large, close gatherings of any kind, including protests, parties and packed beaches, are dangerous and "we would prefer people not to go". But, "if you are going to an event like this please try and practise distancing".
