Declan was working in a Queensland petrol station earlier this year when a customer walked into the store without wearing a mask — a requirement of entry at the time.
"I asked them to put a mask on and they got very angry very quickly,” Declan told SBS News.
“They were shouting at me ‘you can't tell me to wear a mask … I can sue you’.”
When the customer approached the counter to pay for their items, Declan asked them to check in.
"They said, 'this is harassment…it’s against the law to track people'," he said.
“Instead of giving me their money, they threw it at me."
Declan’s story is one of more than 100 responses collected by activist group, the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (CARF).
Nathan*, who works in a hardware store in NSW, also submitted a response to CARF. He told SBS News he’s heard countless stories about his colleagues being harassed by those opposed to COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination.
Nathan said a man smashed a glass table after becoming angered about a rule that only one person per household could enter the store.
“He kept going on a bit of a rage and eventually went over to the display area where we have a whole bunch of furniture set up and destroyed a glass table before leaving the store without buying anything,” Nathan said.
For Nathan, even as restrictions have eased, being harassed by customers is a “daily occurrence”.
“When restrictions were a bit higher, they were getting people to enter through the one entrance in the store just so they could do like a headcount,” he said.
“At least once an hour that was someone who would call us stupid.”
CARF has asked for public submissions of anti-vaccine attacks and harassment by the far-right, which they claim is steeply on the rise.
In one response seen by SBS News, a woman claims a man told her 18-year-old daughter to “f*** off” while she was working at a hardware store after she asked for his vaccine certificate.
Another woman claimed in one day on the job she was yelled at, spit on and harassed by customers in Melbourne on three separate occasions after asking them to check in to the store where she works.
Jess, a CARF spokesperson, said the group has received 100 reports of harassment by anti-vaccine activists. It also received more than 500 responses from the far-right and anti-vaxxers.
“The website got shared into some right-wing circles and they have responded with some of the vilest commentary that you can imagine,” Jess told SBS News.
“Some have tried to spam it to drown out the legitimate complaints and then some of them are just horrific; anti-Semitic, talking about rape and the n-word. It’s just disgusting.”
Jess believes there has been an attempt from far-right individuals to flood the website with responses from bots.
People rally in Melbourne over vaccinations and lockdown measures. Source: AAP
“When you set up the website, you can put up a captcha thing to say ‘I’m not a bot’,” she said.
“I get an email every time someone tries to submit a response without clicking that and I’m getting about 100 emails a day.”
The reports come after a man was filmed pushing a Melbourne bookshop worker down an escalator after an argument about vaccine mandates last month.
Police said the man entered the store and argued with the worker, who had approached to check his vaccine passport.
As a result of their activism, CARF said it has had organisers targeted by the far-right and the anti-vaccine movement.
“We’ve had people track them down and post publicly about where they went to uni and where they work,” Jess said.
“We've had people's workplaces be called and people try to get them sacked.”
CARF was founded a few years ago to oppose far-right groups like the Reclaim Australia movement and United Patriots Front.
“At the time those groups were focused on anti-Islam activities. They organised protests outside Halal food festivals,” Jess said.
“Now we’re seeing the far-right pop up again in Melbourne with the ‘freedom protests’. When we picked up on what was happening we thought ‘Okay, it's time to get back on the streets'.”
The group has recently organised a series of counter-protests during the Melbourne "freedom" rallies after noticing many of the events had been infiltrated by Neo-Nazis, extremists and so-called anti-lockdown "celebrities".
At one counter-protest last month, CARF protested outside Melbourne’s Park Hotel where 34 asylum seekers and refugees are currently detained.
“We wanted to just make a comment about what actual oppression looks like in this country,” Jess said.
“Being oppressed isn’t when you can't be bothered getting a vaccine or wearing a mask. It actually looks like the refugees who are trapped in that hotel and have been there for far too long.”
Small businesses ‘overwhelmed’ by anti-vaxxers
Alexi Boyd is the chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA).
She said small businesses are approaching a level of exhaustion when it comes to dealing with customers’ attempts to flout COVID-19 restrictions while keeping across the constant changes.
While restrictions have been scrapped for vaccinated people in New South Wales, the escalating COVID-19 cases have caused great uncertainty, according to Ms Boyd.
“We don't really know from one day to the next what is expected of us to protect the community. But we're still very stressed about making sure that our staff and our community are safe,” she told SBS News.
Ms Boyd said she’s heard cases of anti-vaccine activists targeting businesses with fake reviews, phoney legal proceedings and protesting outside their stores.
She said businesses who are threatened by aggressive customers should contact the police and report the behaviour.
“It’s disgusting behaviour when small businesses are simply trying to protect and look after their workers, themselves, their business and their community,” Ms Boyd said.
“What I think is really frustrating for businesses is the way that things are not just people expressing their views but it is targeted, it is organised.
“Everybody has an entitlement to their opinion … but when there is a mob mentality, [small business owners’] livelihoods, mental health and their lives are affected."
Ms Boyd also called on the community to champion small businesses and stand up for those who are targeted by the far-right and anti-vaxxers.
“I would also say the callout here is to the greater public,” she said.
“If you want small businesses to exist, and you want them to be part of your thriving and diverse community, you need to help by calling those actions out.”
*Name changed to protect individual’s privacy
