A 24-year-old man has been charged under Victoria's new laws aimed to prevent violence from masked offenders for refusing to remove a face covering at a rally in Melbourne on Sunday.
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A 27-year-old female protester has also been charged with assault after a scuffle with police and journalists.
The man will be charged on summons for wearing the black mask, which covered part of his face, Victoria Police said on Monday.
Police moved on three other men under the new laws, enacted on Wednesday, which give authorities more powers to crack down on violent protests and rioters with facial coverings.
However, despite the arrests, Victoria Police say they were "generally pleased with the behaviour" at Sunday's two separate rallies – which saw parts of the CBD shut down as for a right-wing demonstration calling for a crackdown on crime and a left-wing counter-protest against racism.
A heavy police presence including hundreds of officers, mounted police and special operations units wearing Kevlar and carrying pepper spray and barricaded streets successfully managed to keep the two groups separated when the left-wing protesters marched to the steps of
Parliament to try and drown out the speeches conducted by those in their opposing rally.
Both arrests occurred earlier in the day at the left-wing rally at the State Library of Victoria.
The 24-year-old man – dressed all in black and sporting a close-cropped mohawk – silently stood among the left-wing protesters before police swooped in and asked him to remove his face covering, which was in breach of the new laws. He refused and was dragged from the crowd to a
side street, where he was handcuffed and searched.
The man yelled at journalists covering his arrest after his face covering was removed that they were invading his privacy and right to "conceal my identity for my own private reasons" .
