Melbourne restaurant cancels event following protest threats

A fundraiser for One Nation in Melbourne tonight won’t go ahead as planned, after anti-racism protesters vowed to demonstrate outside the venue.

Victoria Police confirmed that Giorgio Casa, the Italian restaurant in Moonee Ponds hosting the cocktail party on Friday night, had cancelled the event, but police added they were not aware of any threats made against it.

“The decision not to hold the event was made by the venue,” they said.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and MP Barnaby Joyce were both set to speak at the soiree, which would have capped off a fundraising blitz for the party in recent days.

Similar events held in other Australian cities this week, including Perth, were met with protests, where hundreds held signs decrying racism and the party itself.

Groups such as No Room for Racism, the Victorian Socialists, and Free Palestine Melbourne had planned to gather near the Melbourne fundraiser 45 minutes before it began “to drive Hanson out”. Online, some far-right figures had spoken of sending their own groups down to defend the event.

One Nation did not say whether the fundraiser had moved to a different venue or had been cancelled entirely. Hanson touched down in Melbourne on Friday morning.

On Friday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Giorgio Casa said he was still confirming what had happened with the event plans, after a letter announcing the fundraiser’s cancellation appeared and then disappeared in the venue window around lunchtime.

Melbourne has a particular history of protesting against One Nation. Tens of thousands of people flooded Treasury Gardens in 1996 when Hanson was first elected to federal parliament, to stand against the Queensland senator’s anti-immigration rhetoric – including her infamous declaration that Australia was being “swamped by Asians”.

When Hanson formally launched the One Nation party at Dandenong Town Hall in 1997, protests outside the venue turned violent, with demonstrators hurling rotten fruit and bottles at party supporters and clashing with police.

More to come