Two weeks since the arrival of the so-called "Freedom Convoy" in Canberra, the specific goals of the movement remain somewhat elusive. Ostensibly focused on vaccine mandates, the protests have taken place vast distances from the legislatures which enacted those mandates (and have the power to repeal them). Convoy participants have behaved in ways that cannot be explained solely by a focus on mandates - from demanding Canberra locals remove their masks, to protesting hubs for voluntary vaccinations, to replacing the Australian flags at Government House with those of the merchant navy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Movement leaders have long insisted on the event's unparalleled focus on vaccines, but the presence of other agendas has become indisputable.
Thus, on Thursday, a crucial turning point was reached at the apex of the "Freedom Convoy" leadership. A list of demands was published on the Convoy's major channels, where it circulated at enormous speed. First on this list was a demand entirely separate from public health, vaccines and the coronavirus: the dismissal of the entire Federal Parliament and all of its members, followed by unspecified "electoral reform process" and the election of a new government.
To understand why these protesters are in Canberra at all, we should pause to consider their priorities. Informative here is the placement of the demand to remove the federal government, which sits above all of the demands pertaining to health. This reflects how central the desire to upend existing political institutions has become in the movement, cutting across its disparate philosophies. The demand has taken many forms, and given rise to many conclusions, but its fundamental premise is always the same: the Australian government is illegitimate and illegal, and requires total abolition, either in its composition or its structure. This is no longer the end point of vaccine-hesitant ideology - increasingly, it is its point of departure.
The writing has been on the wall for weeks now. On Monday, the Convoy to Canberra Telegram page instructed its 32,000 followers that: "The people are in Canberra to remove the corrupt illegal government, not a joy ride ... We do NOT negotiate with terrorists and our Government are TERRORISTS."
Last Saturday, thousands of demonstrators at Old Parliament House were addressed by khaki-clad movement leader Riccardo Bosi. Bosi, who leads the unregistered AustraliaOne Party, used vaccine mandates to set the sights of protesters higher: "We need 5 million to abolish the government" and "Bring [Canberra] to a [expletive] standstill."
"There is no middle ground", he explains to supporters, because the government is establishing "vaccination camps" with gas pipes connected. "Don't get into the cattle cars and get shipped off," he implores.
When certain protesters were escorted into Parliament by sympathetic politicians a few days later, Bosi lashed out: "Do you negotiate with people who are killing your children? ... They negotiated with your murderers and hostage-takers."
Riccardo Bosi is a big fish in the convoy pond. His party has chapters across the country and oversees a Telegram channel with 40,000 subscribers. Bosi's refusal to engage even minimally with the institutions of Australian democracy is not unique. Convoy organisers have shared videos which allege that the "fundamental problem" with the movement is those that still believe that "the government is the government" - and not a flagrant farce. When asked by a participant whether the demonstrations would end with the scheduled protest on Saturday February 11, group admins stated "not in a long shot, unless parliament is dissolved and those involved charged".
The road from anti-vax to anti-government may not appear obvious to those who haven't made the journey. For those who have, it seems to pass through three overlapping theories.
The first is one of co-option: the hostile takeover of "rightful" Australian government by external actors e.g. the United Nations, the "New World Order", the World Health Organisation, the Chinese Communist Party or Zionists. Whatever the culprit, the essential thrust of this claim varies little: Australian democracy has been co-opted to a point where it represents little more than a prolonged national humiliation. The co-option claim has been amplified by the movement's supporters in Parliament, with Craig Kelly accusing the major parties of selling Australia out "to a cabal of UN bureaucrats" and asserting that he is the only member of the House that refuses to "bow down to globalist orders".
Another avenue by which protesters have transferred concerns about vaccines to the legitimacy of government itself is through the quasi-legalism of the sovereign citizen movement - a movement which is not a coherent doctrine, but rather an umbrella of claims concerning the legitimacy of government. It has proven highly influential on the convoy and its participants. Sovereign citizens believe that the constitution and the Australia Act of 1986 render the current government illegitimate. On December 30, a group of sovereign citizens allegedly burnt the doors of Old Parliament House. One of those charged was Dylan Wilson, who took to Facebook after the incident to announce that "I make no apologies for my actions of late, maybe more buildings will burn." Wilson remains highly connected to the convoy movement. He has interviewed Riccardo Bosi, and his website was built by convoy organiser Jim Greer.
The final claim is the most crucial and widespread, and consists of appeals to "popular sovereignty", or "the will of the people". The essence of this argument is that the Australian government no longer represents the citizens, and therefore has no basis to govern. Vaccine mandates, by this account, demonstrate the triumph of despotic power over the popular will, and the de facto collapse of Australian democracy. Demands to "restore power to the people" are thus often followed by calls for vengeance.
READ MORE:
- Live updates: Convoy to Canberra protesters march on Parliament
- See pictures from Saturday's vaccine mandate protest in Canberra
- ACT Policing investigating alleged assault at Exhibition Park
- 'Part reality TV': Behind the mask of Canberra's fragile protest coalition
- Far-right extremists 'cloaking themselves' in anti-vax movement
Simeon Boikov, a convoy organiser escorted into Parliament by Craig Kelly, told supporters in December that they would celebrate the fall of Dan Andrews' "dictatorship" by "[going] to Bunnings to buy rope. We'll get there one day - it's coming." On Friday, Bosi warned participants at the EPIC camp: "To our ASIO and AFP friends, when we get into power, and we will ... we know who you are, there'll be a knock on your door." Bosi went on to assert that many ASIO, AFP and public service employees were guilty of treason, and suggested the death penalty as rightful punishment.
Together, these three theories foster a toxic synergy that intensifies the discourse and demands of Canberra's visitors. Ultimately, these radical positions have fundamentally reoriented the movement, transforming its focus and inflating its list of targets. Packed into their camp at EPIC, participants hear daily speeches from Bosi and his ilk. Egged on by movement leaders, they take to the streets charged with radical ideas about the state of the country and the solutions necessary.
We would be wrong to assume that a poor understanding of federalism or a tactical blunder was what brought these figures to protest a state issue on federal turf. If we take movement leaders at their word, and note their points of emphasis, it becomes clear that coming to Canberra was no mistake. Vaccine mandates were just the beginning - the gateway into a kaleidoscope of conspiracies that extend far wider and demand far more than an end to mandates.
To quote a speaker at the February 5 event at Parliament, cheered by thousands of attendees: "This is war."
- Oscar Kaspi-Crutchett is a writer for the online magazine Plus61J. He specialises in covering extremism, cultural issues and current affairs.