This week, footage of an Australian journalist being hit by a rubber bullet while covering the violent riots in Los Angeles triggered a wave of outrage back home. The Prime Minister called for an investigation. Media personalities acted shocked. The Greens demanded accountability.

But for those of us who lived through Melbourne’s lockdown protests, it’s hard not to see the hypocrisy.

During those protests, alternative media journalists—those outside the government-approved press bubble—were relentlessly targeted. Police tackled us to the ground, arrested us, fired rubber bullets at us, and pepper-sprayed us from point-blank range. And what was the reaction from the same people crying foul today?

Silence. Or worse—cheers.

The Prime Minister said nothing. The media mocked us. The Greens backed the crackdown. There were no calls for accountability, no outrage, no concern for “press freedom.” Because we weren’t part of their club. Because we were telling the stories they wanted to bury.

Now that it’s happening overseas—and to one of their own—suddenly it’s a national crisis.

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