The Victorian Supreme Court has issued wide-ranging injunctions against community protestors opposing the development of a McDonald's restaurant in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.
The court decision echoes the legal proceedings against Brisbane trade-unionist and activist Bob Carnegie for his part in supporting a community protest by workers at the Queensland Children's Hospital construction site in August-October 2012, and could serve as a template for employers seeking to remove unlawful pickets in the future.
The community picket was established on 1 July in a bid to halt the demolition of an old dairy and the construction of the fast food restaurant at the site in Tecoma, in the Dandenong Ranges.
McDonald's Australia sought an injunction on 16 July 16, naming eight protestors as defendants, and asking the court to appoint two of them as the "representatives" of other protestors to whom the injunction would then apply even though the court could not name them.
Justice Kyrou said the situation called for making a representative order, because without it, McDonald's would be "left without a remedy against unnamed protestors who are flagrantly interfering with its legal rights as part of an ongoing coordinated campaign".
A similar representative order was issued by the court against picketers in the dispute between Qube Ports and the MUA at Port Melbourne's Station Pier on 29 July.
