An abortion clinic is taking legal action against Melbourne city council to demand it crack down on protesters, who doctors say are subjecting patients and staff to “intimidation and harassment”.





“They’re a chronic bullying presence,” Dr Susie Allanson, a psychologist at the clinic, said. “Their rhetoric is extreme. They call me a murderer and say that the clinic is a slaughterhouse. They make links to the Nazis.

“As a staff member I feel absolutely insulted professional and personally, and at times I feel threatened.”

The clinic was the site of a murder in 2001, in which Peter James Knight, a recluse obsessed with abortion, shot and killed a security guard before being restrained by patients and staff.

Lawyers for the clinic, along with the Human Rights Law Centre, started legal proceedings on Wednesday to compel the council to enforce laws against public nuisance.

Allanson said the protesters clearly fitted the definition of a nuisance under Victorian law. “They pick out a woman down the street and they walk closely behind them all the way to the clinic gate and then try to stand in front of them.”

The clinic’s research shows that one in five patients say the protesters have obstructed them as they tried to enter the clinic.

The council says its officers attend the clinic “at least twice a week” to monitor the protests.

“We do what we can in regard to behaviour outside the clinic within the extent of the laws available to council.”

But solicitor Lizzie O’Shea, who is leading the case, said more could be done.

“The act permits prosecutions in the form of fines and penalties. They could enact bylaws, or they could lobby the state government to impose access zones, as they have in Tasmania.

“The council has put this in the too-hard basket. We want them to take it seriously. If the Melbourne City Council is at a loss for what to do, they’re welcome to approach us and we can find a solution together.”

Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle told a press conference on Wednesday that the law gave council only limited options to deal with protesters.



“Unless we are there it is very, very difficult. We refer to police. We have felt quite impotent in what we have been able to do.

“I have even more sympathy for the young women who from time to time get harassed as they enter that clinic at a very vulnerable time in their lives, and I think that is appalling behaviour,” Doyle said.

He said controversial legislation granting police new powers to deal with protests, which passed Victoria’s upper house on Tuesday, could be useful in dealing with demonstrators outside the clinic.



“I’m delighted that these move-on laws will apply to these protesters,” he said.

HGPI has been contacted for comment.