Green’s ‘Day Off’ As Anarchy Looms

Controversial Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri has been slammed for ditching parliament to join an anti-war rally while taxpayers fork out up to $15m for police to try to keep the public safe.

Victoria Police will be forced to divert more than 1800 officers – a tenth of its personnel – from crime fighting to tackle activists threatening anarchy in the city.

Ms de Vietri will be among 25,000 activists who have vowed to blockade the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday and halt a state government-sponsored weapons expo.

Her decision to speak at the rally and miss hours of parliament has been criticised by Labor, the Opposition, Jewish groups and the police union.

MPs are only expected to ­attend parliament for 48 days, the equivalent of less than 10 normal working weeks.

Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said that while the MP was shirking her job, thousands of his ­members were “working 13-14 hour shifts to try to stop Melbourne from descending into anarchy.”

“It’s nice that the Member for Richmond can walk off the job for an afternoon to go to a protest,” he said. “My members are in the midst of industrial action and yet they won’t be walking off the job.”

Zionism Victoria executive director Zeddy Lawrence said it was “hardly surprising” that the Greens MP would choose to “join a protest on the streets rather than represent her electorate in parliament which she’s actually paid to do”.

“The hatred the party directs towards Israel – the only country that champions ethnic, religious and gender equality in a sea of discriminatory dictatorships – reveals the disdain they have for democracy,” he said.

“Members of Parliament have the privilege of serving their communities, but the part-time Member for Richmond is more interested in stunts than service,” a Labor spokesperson said. “It is our expectation that Members of Parliament turn up for work.”

Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick accused Ms de Vietri of “using her taxpayer-funded salary to pull cheap stunts, incite hate, and potentially compromise safety”.

“The Member for Richmond’s embarrassing actions have made it clear: she’s an overpaid protester, not a politician,” he said.

“She is just not fit to sit in the Victorian parliament.”

The mega rally against the Land Forces Expo is expected to be one of the largest police operations since the World Economic Forum in 2000 – prompting the Allan government to fork out at least $15m to help cover the cost of policing for the three-day event.

Treasurer Tim Pallas on Tuesday said the hefty top-up had been requested by police.

He warned Victorians to stay away if “you have no business being there”.

The extra funding is expected to go towards accommodation, travel costs and overtime for police, including members of the highway patrol and public order response team, who have been pulled into the CBD from across the state.

Serial climate activist Deanna “Violet” Coco – who was notoriously jailed for three weeks for blocking the West Gate Bridge in March during peak hour – will also join the blockade.

On Tuesday, Ms de Vietri – who claimed the Greens were a “party for peace and non-violence” – sought to excuse clashes at recent protests.

She said a “scuffle or two” was incomparable to “the violence perpetrated by these weapons companies at the hands of our governments”.

Defending ugly scenes in Bourke St over the weekend in which pro-Palestine activists clashed with buskers and police, Ms de Vietri said: “The violence is inside this weapons expo with the bombs and the missiles, the cluster munitions, that are being produced and used to fuel violent oppression across the world.”

Ms de Vietri, who regularly wears a keffiyeh to parliament, is a no stranger to stunts.

In August, she posted a video slamming Melbourne City Council’s decision to ditch scooters, only to then allegedly get busted using her mobile phone illegally while riding her bicycle.

Last year, the Greens MP was banned from the parliamentary chamber for two days after refusing to apologise for posing for a selfie with climate activists who had disrupted Question Time.

And while Yarra mayor, she charged ratepayers almost $7000 for an in-house nanny during Melbourne’s Covid-19 lockdowns.

Co-chair of Students for Palestine – the organisers of the Land Forces rallies – Bella Beiraghi said protesters were “for peace” and the “real safety concern” was the armoured tanks being transported into the international weapons conference.