As it happened: Thousands gather at anti-vaccination rallies in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane

He later told the crowd that the Australian people would not be silenced, and also criticised Mr Morrison, saying he had “abandoned Australia”.

“Craig Kelly introduced in the House of Representatives two bills in the last sitting of parliament,” he said.

“One of them was to outlaw mandatory vaccinations. The other was to outlaw vaccine passports. Yet today, Morrison said he’s against what the Queensland government can do.

“Why won’t he let the Liberals vote for those bills - because he won’t - because he’s bullshitting and he’s lying to you.“

“He’s pushing businesses to get people to get vaccinated but at the same time saying everyone should have their right to choose,” he said.

“But you don’t have a choice when you’ve got five children and a mortgage to pay.“

Mr Palmer is expected to address the rally shortly.

Mr Field said the group had sent a message to the parliament crossbenchers: “don’t take us for fools”.

He claimed the crowd at the park had reached 450,000 despite a much smaller number of people attending.

“Daniel Andrews thought he had this game won, until he got Somyu-wrecked,” he said, invoking independent MP Adem Somyurek, whose conduct is under investigation in an anti-corruption watchdog inquiry.

Mr Somyurek returned to parliament this week after confirming his vaccination status and vowed to vote against the pandemic legislation.

Kelly added: “The buck stops with the prime minister. He could ban vaccine passports in this country if he wanted to.

“My message today and is one of hope. The crowd we see in front of us is just a small number of people that is coming after the Labor and Liberal parties at the next election.”

The vaccines approved for use in Australia have strong scientific backing as being both safe and effective in preventing COVID-19.

If you would like to read more about the development of the vaccines and their safety this piece by science reporter Liam Mannix provides some great context.

Here’s a taste:

Of 57 vaccines approved by the US since 1996, the median safety follow-up was 1½ months. Yet only one had to be withdrawn from the market for safety reasons; at the same time, these vaccines cut the incidence of common viruses such as polio and measles by more than 90 per cent.

It is quite amazing how safe and effective these medicines are.

And the trials often have to run longer than COVID-19 ones because they have to capture enough infections in the placebo group to be sure a vaccine is working. It might take a long time to capture enough shingles infections; that is not a problem when testing a COVID-19 vaccine in the middle of a pandemic.