Pro-Palestine sentiment surges across Melbourne

A wide net of protesters have swept across Melbourne in the days after lower house MPs in Canberra overwhelmingly rejected a motion to recognise Palestinian statehood.

A state government-backed defence forum in Melbourne’s CBD was the target of protesters who laid on the building concourse Friday morning. Police say no arrests or move on directions were given.

Victoria’s Jobs Minister Natalie Hutchins spoke at the event, which was sponsored by weapons and defence behemoth BAE Systems. The line up featured speakers from weapons manufacturers DMTC, QinetiQ, and SYPAQ, armourer The Smart Think, plus Melbourne-based manufacturers and a retraining provider.

“Natalie Hutchins will be speaking at this event today because she is the Minister for Jobs and Industry. So she’s played a big role in facilitating the supply chain space needed for weapons to be manufactured in our backyards,” a protester bellowed with a megaphone outside.

Protesters laid down on the concourse, trying to represent the dead bodies of those killed in Gaza.

Ms Hutchins’ office was approached for comment.

Elsewhere in the city, a group of pro-Palestine protesters marched to the state parliament, carrying baby dolls smeared in ‘blood’.

“Stop arming Israel,” their banners read.

Under the Albanese government, Australia has exported $3.25m of arms and ammunition to Israel, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade figures show.

A Melbourne factory is the world’s only manufacturer of a crucial bomb bay door component of the F-35 stealth jet, a machine central to Israel’s defence forces.

Pro-Palestine sentiment was inflamed this week when federal MPs voted down a motion to formally recognise a Palestinian state. The Greens’ motion failed 80 votes to five in the lower house.

A tide of anti-weapons sentiment within the pro-Palestine movement extended to a series of vandalisms targeting Labor government MPs across Melbourne early Friday.

NewsWire is not suggesting the peaceful protesters and vandals are directly associated.

Offices were covered in red paint, with three of the offices hit belonging to federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten and the American Consulate on St Kilda Road.

The attacks happened in the early hours and police are investigating.

On Mr Shorten’s office, the words “Bill blood on your hands. 40,000 dead” were, a purported reference to the difficult-to-verify death toll in Gaza during the past seven months.

The Attorney-General’s office declined to comment. Mr Shorten’s office and the US Embassy have been approached for comment.