Weekend visitors to Perth’s CBD are nearly ten per cent higher now than before the COVID-19 pandemic – the biggest bounce back of any capital city in the country.
New data released by the Tourism & Transport Forum, tracking the post-pandemic recovery of cities, revealed that visitors to Perth on Saturday and Sunday are nine per cent higher than before COVID struck.
Police and neo-Nazis have clashed on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament House ahead of a planned “peaceful” anti-immigration rally in Melbourne.
Footage of the conflict has emerged on Twitter, showing items being hurled during the confrontation in Melbourne about 11am.
Members of Melbourne’s National Socialist Network had planned the event from midday on Saturday, but ralliers and counter-protesters began arriving on Spring St from 10am.
“We are organising in opposition to the system’s importation of 715,000 immigrants … further exasperating the housing crisis and ethnic replacement of white Australians in their own suburbs and towns,” a flyer for the event reads.
“This will be a peaceful and legal demonstration.”
Police have made several arrests. NCA NewsWire / David Crosling Credit: News Corp AustraliaProtesters clash in Spring st in Melbourne and police moved in to make arrests. NCA NewsWire / David Crosling Credit: News Corp Australia
Prior to the clash with police, members could be seen unfurling a banner reading “living space for whites: stop immigration”.
In response, Victoria Police declared the CBD a “designated area” from 7am to 7pm, granting police stop and search powers.
“Police officers and protective services officers are empowered to search a person and any thing in the possession or control of the person, or a vehicle for weapons,” Victoria Police said in a statement.