Young Aussies plan to protest outside the Liberal Party’s HQ in Melbourne on Friday to demand the Morrison government deliver free and accessible Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) to everyone. Given the fact our demo has been disproportionately impacted by the government’s continuously piss-poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, we couldn’t be happier.
The protest is being led by activists from the Tomorrow Movement and the Victorian union movement. It comes after a Megaphone petition calling on the Morrison government to make RATs free received over 130,000 signatures.
Hospitality worker Mollie Merrigan plans to join the rally. She says that without rapid testing available she’s scared to go into work. But she still does it anyway because she needs a roof and food on her plate.
“Young people were the last to get vaccinated,” she said in a statement shared with PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“Many of us have COVID right now. Scott Morrison has left us out in the cold yet again.”
Tomorrow Movement Campaigner Desiree Cai said that the protest goes beyond “demanding free RATs for all”.
Attendees are also calling on “more funding for public health jobs and training, a raise to income support and adequate payments for workers isolating at home, and investment in our public services to prevent future crises through a Climate Jobs Guarantee”.
In a public health crisis that’s really not asking for very much. And yet the Morrison government hasn’t delivered on any of this.
Assistant Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council Amanda Threlfall added: “We are supposed to be a country with universal healthcare. That’s not happening anymore.
“When the going gets tough, Morrison walks away from young workers and our most vulnerable people – and we have had enough.
“When it was put to Morrison recently by a journalist that not everyone can afford rapid antigen tests, his response was a glib: ‘Some people can, some people can’t’. To us that encapsulates this Government’s shameful attitude.
“Young workers deserve so much better and right now we are mobilising fast, and fighting back.”
If you want to join the rally, the group plan to meet outside the Liberal Party Head Office on Collins St at 10am. Organisers ask anyone who plans to show up to wear a face mask.
