'Mums and Dads' of Melbourne at today's Tunnel Picket (Monday)

That's how you treat your Mums and Dads?

I am still trembling as I write this rapidly before I start work. The scene above is happening at the corner of Alexandra and Queens Parades at this very moment, as protestors attempt to stop the setting up of yet another drilling rig at that corner.
As I watched, I kept remembering how, early on, a police official visiting our picket for the first time expressed surprise that instead of the rabble he'd been led to expect, the protestors he met there were just like 'Mums and Dads'. He was absolutely right; our ranks are full of Mums and Dads - and Aunties and Uncles, Sons and Daughters, with lots of Grandparents thrown in. Yet this is how those ordinary citizens are being treated on a daily basis by police officers - no doubt, by some, against their inclinations - under the direction of the Napthine Government in thrall to its big business cronies. I know I sound particularly strident as I type this, but the scenes I was witnessing an hour ago are unthinkable in the Melbourne I know and love:

'Push!'

Thank goodness for the ever-present Street Medics

Mums and Dads and dogs of Melbourne

The owner of handsome Fred said he brought his canine companion to the picket for a reason. If the East-West Link goes ahead Fred will be only one of many animals - those at the zoo as well as fellow pets and wild-life - who will lose the wonderful resource that is Royal Park. We can't and won't let this happen!