What we learned today, Saturday 18 March
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for now. We may bring you more news later, but here’s a wrap of today’s major news so far:
Transgender rights protesters clashed with neo-Nazis in Melbourne after the controversial UK figure Kellie-Jay Keen held an event in the city. Following the clash, the federal Labor MP Josh Burns called for “tougher laws” after black-clad marchers made Nazi salutes in front of the Victorian parliament.
Residents of Kennett River and Eastern View, located along Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, were urged to evacuate as the state confronted the most dangerous fire conditions since the black summer bushfires.
The Australian passport office has recovered from the pandemic shock with 96% of routine passports issued within the standard 10 business days in February, compared to just 46% a year ago, new data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade shows.
Australia’s cannabis industry could be earning the black market $25bn a year and, rather than policing it, we could be gaining revenue from it by legalising it, the Greens senator David Shoebridge has said.
The amount of dead fish blanketing the river near Menindee in the latest mass kill appears to eclipse the large-scale fish deaths experienced in 2018 and 2019. Experts said the rotting fish and hot weather would probably further deplete the water of oxygen in the coming days.
Thank you to everyone who has been following along.
Updated
Labor MP criticises ‘ugly alliance between anti-trans bullies and neo-Nazis’
The clash between transgender rights protesters and neo-Nazis in Melbourne occurred in response to the Let Women Speak event held in the city today.
The event was hosted by the controversial British anti-trans rights figure Kellie-Jay Keen who is currently touring Australia.
The federal Labor MP Josh Burns called for “tougher laws” to be considered after black-clad marchers made Nazi salutes in front of Parliament House.
The ugly alliance between anti-trans bullies and neo-Nazis on display in the city today was extremely confronting.
Both groups seek to bully and blame minority groups in their dark ideology. Scapegoating minorities is their business model, and it has no place in Australia.
The brazen marching with neo-Nazi salutes in front of the Victorian Parliament is unacceptable. This is a time for us to consider whether tougher laws are needed.
The protest in Melbourne came after Keen’s events in Sydney and Adelaide this week were met with clashes between anti- and pro-trans rights activists. Keen is due to travel to Hobart on Tuesday and Canberra on Thursday before heading to New Zealand.
In January, the Greens MP Stephen Bates wrote to Australia’s immigration minister asking him to revoke Keen’s visa. Bates wrote on Twitter at the time:
Today, I wrote to the Immigration Minister and called on him to revoke the visa of a prominent transphobe who poses a significant risk to members of the trans and gender diverse community of Australia.
There’s no place for hate speech in this country. I won’t be sharing their name because I don’t want to amplify their hate speech. The Immigration Minister has the power to revoke his Government’s decision to allow this individual to spread hateful views within our community.
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