Two police officers ended up in the hospital following a confrontation with demonstrators in the Central Business District on Sunday. An anti-immigration rally called the March for Australia was met by opposing protestors, leading to chaos as large rocks, rotten fruit, and bottles containing broken glass were reportedly hurled at the police.

This incident unfolded just days after a disturbing daylight attack near Spencer Street, where a woman was randomly stabbed in the chest by an assailant.

Senior Victoria Police official Wayne Cheeseman criticized the protesters, stating that residents of Melbourne are fed up with the ongoing protests and the surge in violent crimes within the city.

Recently, Allan asserted the city’s safety and reiterated her stance during a press briefing on Monday.

“I will reiterate that, indeed, Melbourne’s CBD is safe,” she affirmed.

“I think it would be wrong and misleading to conflate the behaviour of a very small number of people yesterday who came to the city to bring violence, and they were dealt with swiftly by Victoria Police.”

The protests in Melbourne were just one of many to take place around the country, with Sydney, Brisbane and Perth all seeing anti-immigration protesters and counter-protesters converging in city centres.

Allan said the actions of a small majority – police estimated around 40 of the 1000 protesters in Melbourne were violent – should not be conflated with previous peaceful protests in Melbourne.

“We’ve had some significant size protests in cities, in Melbourne, in Sydney, around the country that have been peaceful, that haven’t seen this level of violence. What we saw yesterday was a very different pattern of behaviour,” she said.

“It was violent, it was unacceptable, it’s not tolerated.”

Cheeseman and other figures in Victoria Police have called on more support and funding from the State government, but Allan insisted police had adequate resources to deal with protests and other violent incidents.

“[Police] had the resources, and also, importantly, they had the powers to deal with those protesters.”

She added she expects police to use these powers to their full effect to punish the perpetrators; so far only one person has been arrested in relation to Sunday’s protest.

“I want to thank Victoria police for the way they kept the community safe and dealt swiftly with this group of protesters who were choosing to use violence. It was unacceptable,” she said.

“It is my expectation that the full force of the law will be brought to those who perpetrated this violence, which subsequently has been identified and are being investigated by Victoria Police.”