The freedom movement is convoying through Melbourne. Why are they still protesting?

Hundreds of cars full of protesters have travelled from across Australia to convoy through Melbourne as part of the freedom movement’s latest protest against COVID-19 restrictions that no longer exist and conspiracy theories that were never true. 

Over the weekend, organisers mobilised a vehicular convoy of like-minded “freedom fighters” to converge on Melbourne for the Mission 2 Melbourne, their attempt at a Sri Lankan-style popular revolt. 

Several barefoot protesters welcomed the arrival of the convoy on Friday from a pedestrian overpass over the Tullamarine Freeway in Brunswick West. Undeterred by torrential rain, they flew flags, blew trumpets at the cars that roared beneath them and cheered enthusiastically at every fleeting horn. 

One protester, suspended doctor Billy Bay, told me he’d travelled from Queensland to “stand up against the tyrant Dan Andrews, and to stop the vaccination of children”.

Some Australians were drawn to the fledgling freedom movement during the height of the pandemic by a genuine indignation towards vaccine mandates and seemingly endless lockdowns. 

While many of those protesters have moved on with their lives, a robust cohort of protesters remain motivated by an insidious misinformation campaign about the pandemic. They believe in far-right conspiracy theories depicting them as the “the awakened” against a nefarious “new world order”. In other words, we’re just left with the die-hards. 

Mission 2 Melbourne, spanning five days and a dozen events, was the movement’s plan to stir a mass civil uprising against Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews because of its belief that he’s bringing in a new world order under the guise of public health restrictions.

The official poster promoting the demonstration demanded an immediate end to the state of emergency, which had ended nearly a year ago. Once they realised their blunder, organisers amended the poster to instead demand an end to the state’s pandemic declaration which, coincidentally, is also ending this week.

So did the protesters pack up their drums and head home? Unfortunately not. In fact, the end of the declaration has seemingly gone unnoticed by protesters, who are unlikely to stop until they overthrow the government in its entirety or are torn apart by factional feuds.   

Whether or not public health orders and vaccine mandates are still in effect has become irrelevant to protesters who have become invested in the movement’s existence. Many have lost friends, family, and money; the freedom movement is what they have left. Protesters insisted that returned liberties are a political smoke screen designed to distract the population from encroaching totalitarianism in the form of several development initiatives planned by intergovernmental organisations, such as “the great reset” and Agenda 2030. 

The impetus of the movement is now the conservation of their community, even as it fractures and becomes ideologically incoherent. New fragments of misinformation materialise online everyday to keep protesters energised and united.

On Friday, several protesters, including Billy Bay, entertained the idea that torrential rain that lashed much of Australia’s east coast was the result of cloud seeding technology, insisting “whenever there’s a protest, there’s always a good amount of rain — connect the dots there, perhaps”. 

On the podium at Flagstaff Gardens where protesters converged for the first night of demonstrations, an American man, Donald Anderson, addressed a festive crowd which included Catherine Cummings, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council. Anderson — who is rarely seen without his Rambo-style flag depicting former president Donald Trump as a muscle-bound GI equipped with a semi-automatic rifle — evoked similar conspiracies.

“They had a big black cloud swirling around, they tried to drop that graphene oxide on us, but it didn’t work, and now we are here,” he said. 

Members of the public abused the protesters as the group took to the street on Friday night. Some even threw eggs from their balcony as the demonstration passed below. 

At Saturday’s demonstration, former Qantas captain Graham Hood, who emerged as an unlikely leader of the freedom movement’s Convoy to Canberra protest in February, addressed a crowd at the Flinders Street steps. 

“Some of us don’t even know what each other’s agendas are. But if we keep calling someone that disagrees with us controlled opposition, or a Freemason, or a paedophile, nobody wins,” he proclaimed to hisses and boos. 

By Sunday night, divisions within the movement had reached boiling point, an argument between the Melbourne and Canberra leadership over alcohol use and the verbal abuse of police officers, which was publicly live-streamed in its entirety, left many freedom protesters feeling disaffected with the movement. The event wrapped up on Tuesday, but by then many protestors had already made their way home.

Mission 2 Melbourne — and the freedom movement generally — has failed to present a compelling, coherent and attainable set of goals. The leaders of the protests lack the experience or political know-how to influence the public discourse around the legacy of Victoria’s lockdowns. Many protesters proudly state they had never attended a protest before joining the freedom movement. 

Completely oblivious to the fact that much of the world has returned to normal, the freedom movement remains determined to overcome whichever benign injustice they subject themselves to, so they aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon.

Is there anything at all to the freedom movement’s claims? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.