Protestors will continue to target the Avalon Australian International Airshow across Greater Geelong this week.
Activists will hold a blockade along Avalon’s Beach Road from 7am on Wednesday, March 26, to stop defence personnel from entering the airshow during its major trade day.
Anti-war rallies have also been organised in North Geelong, Corio and Lara during the airshow’s public days from Friday, March 28, to Sunday, March 30.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Richard Marles said he was disappointed in the actions people were taking against the airshow.
“The airshow is really one of the great Geelong events and they’re (protestors) not going to get in the way of that,” he said.
Mr Marles’ Brougham Street office was targeted on March 19 with anti-war graffiti that said, ‘weapons out of Geelong’ and ‘war crimes start here’, along with a smashed window.
The bomb squad was also called to AMDA Foundation’s (organiser of the Avalon Airshow) North Geelong office on March 21 after two female protestors dropped off a suspicious package at reception while chanting and filming.
A bomb detection robot removed the package at about 1.30pm, which was later found not to contain any dangerous materials.
Mr Marles said acts of vandalism and threats were “not making any point” and that “freedom of speech should be exercised with speech”.
“It’s a small number of people who are really behaving in a way which is so reprehensible, and I don’t think it’s representative of how people feel,” he said.
“Along the way, they’re seeking to intimidate people in a completely inappropriate way. Ultimately, the victims are ordinary people in Geelong who are just going about their business.
“We live in a society where there’s freedom of speech and people have the right to have an opinion but vandalism and intimidating people in their workplace is not freedom of speech.”
