Perth Voice Interactive

A RELENTLESS anti-Covid vaccine protester is opposing Perth council’s rules requiring a permit to hold a sign or play amplified sound in public.

Stuart Chapman says he wants the right to publicly play a recorded message from a dying teenage cancer patient who refused the Covid vaccine.

Mr Chapman is a regular sight on Perth streets opposing Covid vaccines and lockdown measures, and he’s planning another protest “against media and government” in city malls on November 2, according to his permit application. 

Perth council laws prohibit people displaying signs without a permit, which requires a $99 application fee.

Mr Chapman and his supporters have also come up against rules restricting the use of amplified sound: For protests of one or two people, those local laws are administered by the City of Perth, but for more than two people the decision is made by WA Police.

The WA Police usually allow protesters to use an amplifier if the number of attendees is large enough that speakers would need a loudhailer so everyone involved can hear. 

They’re less inclined to issue permits for a small number of protesters to blast uninvolved passers-by with their message. 

Mr Chapman said the restrictions on amplified sound make it impossible for him to play a recording of a now-deceased teenage cancer patient Dazelle Peters.

Dazelle became a cause celebre for anti-Covid vaccine activists following media reports that she had been denied a lung transplant at a Sydney hospital because she was unvaccinated, and the hospital deemed vaccinations were necessary given the risk of infections due to lowered immunity post-transplant. 

She died in June 2024.

At the October 29 council meeting Mr Chapman said he wanted Perth council to change its policy advice to WA Police so he could play his message.

Begging

He told councillors he’d spent a half hour on the phone to a City of Perth customer service staffer “trying to convince him of the situation, and I was practically begging him to meet me on site and to work out a compromise, but was told no, the city has this policy position in place”. 

He said: “So in essence the City’s position was the voice of a girl who was literally in ICU, who was literally at death’s door, should be silenced at a rally in Perth in her support.”

“How can we share Dazelle Peters’ story with her own voice through a recorded message without using an amplifier?”

Lord mayor Bazil Zempilas expressed his condolences for Ms Peters’ family. But the city stayed firm on its rules requiring a permit, and that any amplifiers at protests of more than two people would have to get approval from WA Police.

The council’s restrictions against displaying a sign without a permit have previously been used against anti-fracking protesters in 2012, and in 2016 we reported on rangers using the rule to confiscate signs from homeless people begging around Perth train station.

Mr Zempilas recently said on radio that it made sense to keep the permit system for signs.

“I doubt our team is going to use or enforce this every single time there is a sign,” Mr Zempilas told 6PR’s Stuart Mills, citing the Prosh students selling funny papers for charity as an example that’s unlikely to be draw scrutiny.

“But should they have it within their powers to be able to, if required? Yes, I think they should, I think our community would expect that the local authority could make a decision if somebody’s doing something in an offensive or in a repetitive manner, and the team has that in their kitbag.”

After asking a series of questions Mr Chapman said: “Guarantee you’ll see me again, lord mayor.”

“We look forward to it and we welcome it,” Mr Zempilas responded.

“As I proudly say, the local government is the tier of government where members of the community can walk in and speak directly to their elected members. We’re very proud of that.”

by DAVID BELL