The organisers of Milo Yiannopoulos Australian Tour have yet to pay a $50,000 bill to Victorian Police.
Victorian Police sent the organisers of the controversial speaker’s tour the bill after substantial additional police resources were needed at his Melbourne appearance.
Hundreds of protesters clashed outside his appearance at the Melbourne Pavilion in Kensington last year. Police used pepper spray to control the groups that included left-wing group Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and right-wing groups Reclaim Australia and The Freedom Party.
Victoria’s Police Minister Lisa Neville has told radio station 3AW that the bill remains unpaid and police are ready to start legal proceedings to recover the costs.
Last year, the show’s promoter Damien Costas, who publishes Penthouse magazine and bankrolled the ‘Troll Academy’ tour, labeled the government’s attempts to recover costs as “political grandstanding”.
“We held a perfectly legitimate event,” Costas said at the time. “The people that attended, 3000 of our people, we have three hours worth of footage where you actually see them lining up very peacefully.”
Costas argued that as the organiser of the event he should not be held responsible for the behaviour of people protesting outside the event.
Source: The Age
