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The 22 were among 30 people who were booked by police on April 10 while showing solidarity with more than 60 refugees who were being detained inside the Mantra Hotel in Preston. They were each fined $1652 for allegedly violating a COVID-19 lockdown order.
The refugees had been brought to Australia from Manus Island and Nauru for medical treatment under the now abandoned Medavac law. Most did not receive adequate treatment and all were placed in crowded conditions where guards regularly violated social distancing rules.
The car cavalcade aimed to raise the morale of the refugees and draw attention to the new detention system.
Activists argued that their action was about care and compassion, one of the four reasons people were allowed to leave home at that time.
Pandemic activists have saved more lives than Government
Independent Australia
03 Jul 2021, 08:52 GMT+10
Community groups and activists have done far more to help those in need during the pandemic than our own government, writes Tom Tanuki.
IT TURNS OUT there are redeeming qualities to be found in a global disaster. I m grateful to have been witness to the way people struggle together, organise and build opportunities for community care over the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
This gratitude feels more profound to me than even the temporary welfare measures that kept me fed (before they ended) or the vaccine breakthrough that s already saving millions. Because mutual aid feels more immediate, closer to home. I d rather celebrate this history of grassroots struggle than view the pandemic through an endless chain of government announcements and restrictions.