Pregnant Ballarat mum blames 'bimbo moment' for lockdown protest
A pregnant mother arrested for allegedly encouraging Victorians to take part in anti-lockdown gatherings this weekend says she didn’t know it was illegal to organise the protest.
As Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said any protest held at the moment would be neither "safe" nor "smart", the Ballarat woman, Zoe Buhler, said she realised now it was "not ok" to create the event on social media.
Detectives visited her Miners Rest home with a search warrant on Thursday and charged the 28-year-old pregnant woman with incitement.
Ms Buhler was glad she had livestreamed her arrest on Thursday, which has now been viewed more than 5.5 million times, as she believes it was an "eye-opener of the human rights I’m trying to stand for".
"I thought in Ballarat we are in stage three lockdown and I suppose I had a bit of a bimbo moment and I actually didn’t realise it wasn’t ok," she told radio station 3AW.
"I thought that if we social-distanced and wore masks it was ok. Obviously now I realise that it’s not ok."
She said she believed "some good" should come out of the situation.
"I’m not regretful for going live. It might be a bit of an eye opener of the human rights I’m trying to stand for and people realising just how out of control things are getting.
"I’m not a criminal person and that was very extreme, if the police had of just called me and told me to remove the post I would have done so, I didn’t realise I was doing something wrong and thought it was very extreme under the circumstances, that my children could be exposed to stuff like that."
She said she had organised the protest as she believed lockdowns are too harsh and should be eased.
"I understand that I should be very remorseful and my heart does go out to anyone who has passed away from COVID and people are getting sick. I don't believe it’s a hoax, I'm not a part of a cult or anything like that," she said.
"I am someone that has a strong opinion, I'm glad my opinion is getting out there. You know if lockdowns are eased and it's just little old me that managed to make a difference, I’m glad about that.
"The protest never happened, no-one was actually harmed, restrictions weren’t broken, or anything like that so I guess I'm not remorseful.
"I feel like [Premier] Daniel Andrews is the one that should be feeling remorseful to be honest."
Mr Andrews said that he had not seen the video of the incident and how it was handled was a matter for Victoria Police.
"The key point here is, now is not the time to protest about anything. Because to do so is not safe," he said.
"Protests are not smart, they're not safe, and they're not lawful."
"And that's been my consistent view, regardless of what you're protesting about. And I'm not making a comment about the worth or otherwise or whatever someone is protesting about."
In another social media post from earlier this week Ms Buhler responded to news that the Victorian parliament had extended government powers to enforce measures such as lockdowns writing: "Corona will go down in history as the biggest hoax on earth."
Asked what her message would be to people planning on attending an anti-lockdown protest on Saturday, she said she couldn’t comment on it due to her bail conditions.
Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said the officers, who had a warrant and read the woman her rights, were simply doing their job.
"Members were simply doing their job. We don't have a choice, we're all in this struggle together. The government has given us a job to do and there's an expectation police will do their job," he told ABC.