Looks like an overreaction by the Close Protection Team I haven't encountered Gillard but I had a few dealings with her predecessor Rudd at media conferences. The PM's entourage treated all of us as potential threats, keeping us at more than arms length and generally giving off a vibe of hostility and paranoia. These 'meet the public' events are micromanaged down to the second, so it doesn't surprise me that the PM is dragged around by her bodyguards when things go a bit off script and protestors start jumping at her and shouting. Tony Abbott looks like he's just loving it. He's a very nice guy in person, but at the same time a complete tool.

Abbott's remarks were not particularly inflammatory and not worthy of labeling him a racist. And I'm no Abbott lover.

He could have picked a better time and place to make those comments, though. Australia Day is traditionally a delicate time for discussing any sort of Aboriginal matters.

it is after all invasion day

should play her in the film version.

in Oz like we do them here in the UK judging by the video on that link. All of the reporters seemed to be able to follow without being cosseted by a tall hard looking man and they seemed to survive. Unless they were the protesters. I'd have expected at least an egg or some paint being used.

Looks like she's fleeing an earthquake with her boyfriend, played here by Ross Kemp.

The footage on Nine News just confirms my view that this was a major overreaction by the police and the PM's security team. The TV announcer talks about an 'angry surging mob' but the only people I can see screaming and pushing are the cops. The protestors are, well, protesting.
Reminds me very much of the police behaviour in Sydney during the APEC meeting, very in-your-face aggressive and confrontational towards the general public.
And Julia Gillard goes down even lower in my estimation. Is it too much to expect the national leader to try assert themself on such an occasion and try to engage in a bit of dialogue? A few conciliatory words from her might have gone a long way to defusing the situation. Could have been an opportunity to show that she's not just a puppet of the party apparatchiks. I bet Anna Bligh would have stopped and said something.
But instead, Julia's dragged into a car like she's been subject to an attempted abduction in the Baghdad Green Zone.
This is Canberra, for goodness sake, a place that makes Milton Keynes look edgy. And a 'political insider's' restaurant with the naff name of 'The Lobby'.