arrison McLean helped to launch the "World Wide Rally for Freedom" in Melbourne. Photo / Facebook
arrison McLean helped to launch the "World Wide Rally for Freedom" in Melbourne. Photo / Facebook
Australians were left stunned after Tuesday's tradie rally in Melbourne turned violent, with protesters clashing with reporters and police in unbelievable scenes.
And an unlikely individual – 24-year-old science graduate, Covid denier and bitcoin enthusiast Harrison McLean – helped to plan the protest.
According to the Daily Mail, McLean runs the "Melbourne Freedom Rally" Telegram channel which helped to organise anti-vax protesters who took to the streets against mandatory vaccinations for construction workers and the immediate shutdown of the industry.
While there is no suggestion McLean encouraged any of the violence that took place, he has long been a vocal "freedom" advocate and has participated in a string of protests over the course of the Covid pandemic.
Harrison McLean spoke at a Melbourne protest in March. Photo / Facebook
Born in 1996, McLean graduated from Melbourne's Monash University with a science degree, and went on the co-found WeYouMe, a decentralised social media blockchain protocol, in 2018.
According to his website, the former competitive cheerleader is a "libertarian activist, and vocal proponent of individual and economic freedom, through the application of technological and political decentralisation".
It explains that in 2020, he was a "vocal supporter of freedom of movement and freedom of health within the city of Melbourne, the subject of harsh and totalitarian public lockdown policies, which he vehemently opposed".
It boasts that he helped to launch the World Wide Rally for Freedom in Melbourne and around Australia to "push back against the encroachments on Victorian freedom".
It claims he also wrote an Australian Bill of Rights this year, "to act as a guide for the establishment of a modernised approach to the preservation of freedom in Australia, through a constitutional amendment".
The rally was organised online. Photo / Supplied
McLean began participating in anti-lockdown rallies last July, and become more actively involved in the movement as time went by.
In March this year, he spoke at another rally, telling the crowd, "Today, we are here to take a stand for freedom."
According to the website, he spoke about "the evolution of the freedom movement into both a 'political movement and a social movement' of people who 'put the truth above compliance'".
He also declared, "The free people of the world know that there is no pandemic."
"We are going to purge this country of every single incumbent politician that does not support freedom," he said at the March rally, adding it was "time for Australia to leave the Labor, Liberal, Green, and National Parties, and replace them with new parties".
"We are the freedom movement, and freedom always wins," he said.
'Melbourne Freedom Rally'
According to the "Melbourne Freedom Rally" website, the protests are "dedicated to the preservation of freedom in Victoria", and organisers "stand for individual freedom, economic freedom, and grassroots activism".
Authorities are bracing for more action today, after a violent brawl erupted on Monday outside the Melbourne headquarters of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, efficiently and Energy Union (CFMEU), followed by more chaos yesterday as thousands took to the streets in shocking scenes which included a reporter being pelted with urine.
Protest backlash
Meanwhile, the rallies have been widely condemned, with union boss John Setka slamming some protesters as "drunken morons" and "extremists".
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also lashed at those responsible for the mayhem.
arrison McLean helped to launch the "World Wide Rally for Freedom" in Melbourne. Photo / Facebook
"Can I say at the outset that the ugly scenes that we saw yesterday are not only appalling, they're unlawful," he told reporters today.
"Victoria Police will take action against those who did the wrong thing yesterday.
