Australian Politician Joins Canberra Protest in Solidarity With Canada Truckers

Protesters with flags are seen during an anti-vaccination rally outside Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 5, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Australian politician George Christensen MP has called for COVID-19 vaccine mandates to end while attending the “Convoy to Canberra” protests at the nation’s capital held in solidarity with the Canadian and U.S. truckers’ convoys.

In a video he live-streamed on Facebook, the conservative politician, oft maligned for his views on COVID-19 treatments, Big Tech censorship, and vaccine mandates, appeared in a crowd of thousands of diverse people outside Old Parliament House calling for an end to the “nonsense.”

“Literally thousands of people here from all walks of life. You know, they claim that we’re fringe dwellers but look at the people here. Look at the mums and dads. There are frontline workers; you’ve got police, medicos, nurses, pilots—people who’ve lost their jobs because these vaccine mandates,” Christensen said on Feb. 5.

“All they’re wanting is for this nonsense to end. So this is going to be a very peaceful protest here today. The message is: we want our freedom back. It wasn’t anyone’s to take away in the first place.

“We want our freedom back. We want these vaccine mandates to end. We want the medical segregation to end; lockdowns, state border closes—all the restrictions,” he said.

“Enough is enough. Now is the time. People in Australia—they’re getting very, very angry,” he added.

Social media has been flooded with videos and images from protesters and supporters, who drove from around the country to mobilise in Canberra in solidarity with the “Convoy to Ottawa.”

In a video shared in the Telegram channel “2022 Official Convoy to Canberra,” people can be seen carrying the flags of various countries, including Australia, Hungary, Scotland, Turkey, along with Australian state flags, the Aboriginal flag, and the Eureka flag—from the 1854 rebellion of miners on the Victorian goldfields against the cost of permits and the authoritarian way officials enforced the system.

Protesters with flags are seen during an anti-vaccination rally outside Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 5, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

Others wore army fatigues and held up signs, one of which read: “Since when was two weeks to flatten the curve consent to join the world’s biggest medical experiment.”

People chanted “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi,” and sang, “We don’t need no vaccination.”

Protesters and supporters shared messages on social media, encouraging non-violence and offered suggestions on ways to show police they were not part of any “paid” troublemaking.

“You’ve got a choice of living forever with fear or living forever with freedom,” an elderly veteran who served as a cook in Australia for soldiers returning from the Vietnam War told Turning Point Australia in Canberra.

In Canada, the movement saw tens of thousands of truckers mobilise in response to ongoing vaccine mandates and harsh government-mandated restrictions.

In Australia, mandates have been widely enforced across the country with largely bipartisan support politically, as well as from the business and medical community. It remains a contentious issue, however.