CASA Imposes NO Fly Zone over Melbourne
 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...22-p58tr6.html

No-fly zone over Melbourne as tense Shrine of Rememberance standoff continues

By Adam Carey, Erin Pearson and Nick Bonyhady

Updated September 22, 2021 — 1.56pmfirst published at 11.57amFor our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has grounded aircraft flying above Melbourne’s inner city without police approval, in a move that will prevent media from using helicopters to cover anti-lockdown protests from the sky.

The CASA notification, which is effective for the next five days and extends to 2500 above the city, came before police fired non-lethal rounds into a crowd of up to 1000 anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine mandate protesters at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.

Riot police have surrounded protesters at the shrine, but have mostly kept their distance in a stand-off that has lasted hours.

It is the third day of protests in Melbourne, which began with a demonstration on Monday to oppose an order from the Chief Health Officer that construction workers must receive a vaccine to return to work when the industry is reopened. On Tuesday, the protest swelled to a group of thousands - including many far-right activists - that rampaged across the city and resulted in several violent scenes.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0...7bea0bbc51d68dPolice surround protesters at the Shrine.Credit:Wayne Taylor

Members of the protest group at the Shrine periodically chanted a mix of anti-vaccine slogans and invective at Premier Daniel Andrews, as well as singing the national anthem and at one stage taking a knee in front of police officers.

Police eventually began to remove some protesters at about 3.30pm, while encouraging others to leave peacefully.

Earlier, scattered groups of protesters engaged in a game of cat and mouse with Victorian riot police throughout Wednesday morning, as protest action continued in Melbourne for a third day.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0...b88bbc4d6ed178Riot police blocking Melbourne’s Elizabeth Street this morning.Credit:Erin Pearson

By 1.30pm, protesters and police were in a tense standoff about 200 metres apart.
Police pursued small and seemingly disorganised groups of protesters, who marched along several CBD streets including Elizabeth, Flinders and Queen streets, blocking traffic as they walked.

A handful of arrests were made as members of Victoria Police’s Public Order Response and Critical Incident Response teams converged on the city in a show of force, stopping people who attempted to enter the CBD and checking their identification.

By early afternoon, protesters were growing in numbers near the Melbourne headquarters of the CFMEU, north of the Queen Victoria Market, where there was also a large police presence.
The construction union’s office windows have been boarded over after protesters, enraged by the state government mandating of COVID-19 vaccination for those employed in the building sector, gathered there on Monday, throwing projectiles including bottles.

Wednesday’s protests have so far been significantly smaller than Tuesday’s, when up to 2000 people met in the city before blockading the West Gate Bridge in a march that organisers vowed to repeat.

Several hundred people marched south along Swanston Walk and St Kilda Road. There were chants of “f--- the jab” and “f--- Dan Andrews”.

Police have vowed to be less tolerant on Wednesday, and said Melbourne would not see a repeat of Tuesday’s scenes where the protest became violent at times.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0...01a0b12cbc5f51Police surrounded protesters at the Shrine.Credit:Wayne Taylor

Victorian construction union leader John Setka said any CFMEU members found to have participated in violent protests would be expelled from the union.

“Let me tell you, people that were involved in the violent protest, they may as well go pick fruit in Mildura somewhere because they will not be working in our industry,” he told ABC radio Wednesday morning.

Premier Daniel Andrews condemned the protests and said Victoria Police would “take action against those who did the wrong thing yesterday”.

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https://cf-images.ap-southeast-2.pro...atch/image.jpg1:35

Victoria Premier says protests an 'insult' to tradies

https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_...6b1905f93d7e3d
Wednesday, September 22: Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has slammed protesters in Melbourne, saying they were "there for a fight".

“They’re not there to protest; they’re there for a fight.”

Mr Andrews said that despite a few thousand people choosing to protest, about 90,000 people got vaccinated on Tuesday.

“That’s the more important number. They know that the way out of this is not violence, it’s vaccination,” he said.

Related Article

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Live

Coronavirus pandemic

Melbourne protests LIVE: Protesters in stand-off with Victoria Police at Shrine of Remembrance; Daniel Andrews condemns demonstrations

The Andrews government has shut the state’s construction industry for two weeks, blaming low COVID-safe compliance at building sites. There are more than 330 active cases across the sector.

Speaking to the media after announcing that all school and early learning staff will be required to be vaccinated by October 18, Education Minister James Merlino said the protesters were criminals.

“Make no mistake, this is thuggery, this is criminal behaviour and will be responded to accordingly by Victoria Police, who are doing an exceptional job,” Mr Merlino said.

That giraffe and those waterfowl look like they want to make trouble....

Surprised CASA can manage to do this... They can't organise enough people to answer the CASA phone, despite claiming that they 'all services are available.

Begs the question: What don't they want filmed?

Sure, the rabble rousers use media reports as part of their intelligence to coordinate movements, but that isn't going to change due to a temporary restricted area that only goes to 2,500...

ASA number removed by me. VicPol can answer theirs, if they want to manage a temporary restricted area in Class G.

They put similar no fly's over just about every serious event these days, stops drones and media getting in the way of airborne police assets, not unusual, I've had to change runways once due to a domestic dispute siege in a house under one approach path. The only unusual part is being told its to stop media helicopters in particular. Above 2500 is CTA so they would need a clearance then.

I'd hazard a guess that the police and army have hotlines or automated procedures they can use for these restricted areas in an emergency.

They need a no-fly zone to send in Pussy Galore's Flying Circus and put these protesters to sleep. With vaccine spray of course.

Well from today’s protest at the Shrine it’s pretty obvious the whole thing has been hijacked by the usual anti-lockdown/anti-vaccine/QAnon/5G knuckle draggers, so if it gives them space to dish out some punitive justice on behalf of the silent majority who are doing the right thing, I’m all for it.

It's obviously for safety. They don't want any stray rubber bullets hitting aircraft..

It's all part of the corrupt Govt tyranny to dumb down the sheeple! Australia, the land of oppression & discrimination!

Thought the NFZ was due to the 5G from the vaccines. Maybe they realised ivermectin is only good for treating ticks 🤔

There is probably a couple of reasons for it:
- Protestors using media footage to coordinate their marches in order to prevent police intervention
- The police had multiple air wing assets flying above the protests - in a very confined area the pilots probably have more important things to do than be constantly on the look out for media aircraft
- My understanding is that the police now use drone technology - could this be another possible reason to ensure their is no conflict with their drones and light aircraft?

The police aren’t ‘hiding’ anything. All you have to do is look at the multitudes of live stream footage being shown on Facebook. Despite protestors…sorry “journalists”…shoving an iPhone in front of police and filming away, I have seen no police officer try to stop that.

The police have done a very good job to date in my opinion.

And no matter where you sit on lockdowns, Dan Andrews, vaccines, etc - the one thing that all Australians can’t stand is politicising our military, the ANZACs, or those that have died in service to our country. That protest at the Shrine was nothing short of a disgrace and should be called out as such.

Haha....... I always laugh when I hear these morons carrying on about being traced via a chip in the vaccine - as a US Governor commented recently "You reckon we're going to put a chip in the vaccine to track you, but you walk around everywhere with a mobile phone, give me a break!!!!!!!"

So we have the army patrolling the NSW QLD border..

Dan Andrew’s shuts down public transport to try to prevent protests.

No fly zone in a CBD over protests, to essentially stop the media.

What have we become?

Victoria Police backflip on decision to restrict airspace over Melbourne vaccine protests Looks like the decision has been reversed, with a bit more information as to why. News media are now allowed in with the restriction that they have to delay broadcasts by 60 minutes, to prevent protesters being able to see police tactics and plan actions based on them, which was apparently happening. That sounds much more reasonable and balanced than preventing news media aircraft being overhead.

The protestors had spotters all over the city. They weren’t relying on TV choppers for coverage.

I'm sure that's true, but being able to watch the footage live from overhead on their mobile phones must have helped them out too.

Class C above 2500 ol boy. ATC probably on-board with 'the direction' from Chairman Dan :)

NOTAM still current and reiterated by ATC over the FIR.C1021/21 REVIEW C1020/21
TEMPO RESTRICTED AREA ACT
FOR PUBLIC SAFETY WI 3NM RADIUS OF 374900S 1445800E
NO ENTRY WITHOUT APPROVAL OF CONTROLLING AUTHORITIES.
WI CONTROLLED AIRSPACE CONTROLLING AUTHORITY IS AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA
CTC TEL: 03 9235 7420.
IN CLASS G AIRSPACE CONTROLLING AUTHORITY IS VIC POL
CTC: 0429 663 797
SFC TO 2500FT AMSL
FROM 09 220516 TO 09 260900 EST
DAILY 2000/0900

OK 330 active cases in the VIC construction industry - an industry full of burly, fit and healthy young people.... If you are vaccinated and your family is vaxxed and Chairman Dan is vaxxed seriously what is your friggin issue?

The only people at risk (which I will add is very,very low amongst the fit and healthy) are the workers that aren't vaxxed - yes?.

You do know the vax DOES NOT inhibit infection or more so the transmission of the disease don't you - or do you not? If not, do some homework and go to the actual pharma sites and read about their amended claims of disease transmission.

You know the ol saying, "look after your own back yard and don't worry about your neighbour" - get yourself vaxxed if you think that is a good thing to do and let the others do what they want. There is no reason to mandate anything not that you can anyway.

Pretty much sums up what the rest of the world are now asking about Australia...

The news organisations need to take this to court - It's not up to the police to decide what news outlets can or cannot cover :mad:.

As said above, spotters through the city would have made media choppers redundant.

Maybe the Vic Police could carry the COVID Vaccine with them and get a few shots away during the next protest. :E

Hey CON, plod restricts access to their areas of “operation” every other day of the week, no difference here. What could be achieved by taking them to court, other than making lawyers some more money ??
As for coverage, put a reporter on every street corner and do live crosses as the rampaging mobs go by, that would be better than the crap they serve up even with the helicopter. Plod never stopped them from covering it, they just stopped their helicopters getting in the way of doing what we pay plod to do.
BTW, p#@s poor response from a p#@s poor guvmint.

That's a brilliant idea, force vaxx any anti force vaxx protester that gets arrested. "Sorry, you have been arrested, but a mandatory requirement for entry to the lockup is being at least 1 shot vaccinated, so bend over Brutus"

BTW another form of passport these people will be getting is a criminal record passport, good luck getting access to certain worksites esp those that require an ASIC if you get caught attending. Remember that both ASIC and MSIC holder requirements changed recently to exclude a lot of activities happening in that protest, including the protest in itself.

I also witnessed some weird trump supporters in the midst of this fray, good luck getting a Visa to the US if you get a record from this.

I suppose the final point being, they are arguing about freedoms, when they are severely limiting their freedom options for the rest of their lives, not just the next few months of lockdown, I hope they considered this before the angry street based tirade.

A police heli has been up each day flying around the Melbourne CBD for fairly lengthy hours over the last couple of days.

The last thing I would want is numerous other helis in that airspace when operational decisions need to be made at short notice. As ASA is responsible for that airspace the police have every right to request it be restricted if it's in the interests of operations.

Last weekend the VicPol King Air 350 was also flying for hours conducting surveillance of potential protest movements into the CBD which I thought interesting.

It's an odd mix of people involved in the latest Melbourne protests/riots for sure.

I've witnessed several groups on their way home from this week's actions - a strange mix of right wing extremists, religious nut jobs, garden variety anti-vaxxers and a few genuine tradies scattered among them.

The majority of Melbournians - including most tradies I know (now out of work) - are appalled at the actions of this minority.

The restriction was put in place so that the TV news couldn't do live feeds which the protesters could use to coordinate their responses. Nothing sinister or Big Brother about it just common sense when dealing with a rabble. I believe the SAS had a similar requirement at Princess Gate which itself came as a lesson from the 1972 Munich massacre.

One of my tradie mates is on forced leave anyway because another tradie at worksite had covid during that day, so two weeks of home iso. He just stayed home and got drunk, and some new tatts, thinks the city protesters are fools.

A PM who doesn't care, with numerous mess ups along the way. No early vaccines or quarantine. Now he has his 'look over here!' submarines. States with handballed responsibilities and now essentially holding cases low until a reasonable amount of protection in the communities is reached. Rampant misinformation from outlets like Sky News and high profile politicians.

That being said it's pretty rich for countries to be critical of us in some ways, especially in regards to COVID.

What???? Getting Tatts instead of home iso????
Quick, someone call the ze Covid Commandant!!!!

Who's to say they didn't get drunk at home then give themselves the tatts? :E

Also known as the Obergruppenfuehrer, or so I'm told.

No..hang on...that's Mrs Pinky..:O

The Restricted Airspace was lifted today following a Federal Court ruling in favor of the three TV outlets, allowing them to fly over the CBD and broadcast footage live until a court trial can be set down, maybe as early as next week.

CASA were compliant but this was a nonsense from the start: a simple co-ordination with the TV stations not to broadcast anything live has been done before, and has a precedent. Now the VicPol Command have ensured they won't be trusted for some time to come.

"look after your own back yard and don't worry about your neighbour"

That would sort of make sense ... if your actions didn't negatively impact anyone else .. which they do. We're all in this together - unfortunately.

The people in the building industry do network and do share stories on what politicians, rich business people, famous people, and senior public servants are building in their back yards. I wouldn't be surprised if many senior Victorian public servants, who have not suffered any financial stress in the last 18 months, have been renovating their homes during the downtime.

To add to the hypocrisy, I also find it odd that with barbers and hairdressers closed, the very same people who mandated this have been looking well groomed throughout all the lockdowns when I'm currently looking like the wild man from Borneo.

So why punish the whole building industry with a two week shutdown? It doesn't make any sense when the majority of them have been playing straight. It's seem very dictatorial and ill-advised, just like the very stupid decisions early on by the Victorian government with hotel quarantine. It seems you can't change stupid, and these senior Victorian public servants seem to be the worst of the lot and we can't get rid of them.

Best post.

Funny how the ABC now describe trade union members who are demonstrating (tradies) as right wing extremists. No Aunty, they are lefties like you.

Except the fact that us that actually live in Melbourne and have witnessed the protests have seen them infiltrated by Neo Nazis and Trump Supporters, and whatever else is going on here. The wearing of high vis does not mean they are all union. I'm against mandatory vaccination, but now we've had normal vaccination hubs closed due to protesters spitting on nurses, so if you want to ask 'what have we become' ask more 'what have they become' as 99% of Melbournians do not agree with the protests and what they are doing. And since the shrine event the group has given itself hate status. The CFMEU distanced itself from the protests on day one as they said the vast majority of their members were in favor of vaccination, so this is NOT a union action.

The fact known agitator (and convicted wife basher) Avi Yemeni was involved in the protests is confirmation these were far right extremists, not organised trade unionists.

I don't think there is one workers union in Melbourne that is against Vaccination (mandatory vaccination is the sticking point). Numerous unions have actually spoken out against these protests, one of the best notices was from the Victorian Ambulance union who are disgusted by what is happening both in the protests and actions against their members when approaching these 'anti-vaxx' types.

It’s funny how you bash the ABC for that yet ignore the fact that other news sources like the SMH and Murdoch’s own news.com.au have labelled the protesters as “far right”, in addition to the presence of Trump flags, Nazi salutes and QAnon paraphernalia at the protests, means the ABC (and all other media) are correct, these were mostly protesters of the right.

Left leaning protesters would’ve been more female, more “feral”, more “hippy”, at the Shrine I saw mostly angry young men.