There’s a whiff of les gllets jaunes in the Melbourne air today. That and the smell of flares.

For more than four hours protestors have been marching across the CBD. One group several hundred strong now appears to be occupying across the West Gate Bridge (a site of huge significance to Victorian construction workers, given how many of their colleagues were killed or injured when it collapsed during construction) after shutting down Greater Melbourne’s main artery, the City Link tollway. No police are in sight other than two squad cars that belatedly arrived and have maintained a distance.

At the same time some in the MSM finally appear to be understanding what is going on and what has been going on around the world for at least half a decade now. Age reporter Paul Sakkal put out this Tweet a couple of hours ago.

That “not necessarily mutually exclusive” is a late awkening.

Make no doubt about it: there are obviously some truly ugly types out there and there have been some ugly scenes, but at the moment it people who are marching appear — appear — to be the real deal; gllets jaunes and, yes, the deplorables. Too many pass the Setka test and are wearing work boots, not trainers. And Bill Shorten’s “man-Baby Nazis” prefer web streaming from their parent’s house, not stopping trucks travelling at 80 kph or travelling to the point of action on the back of a flat-top semi-trailer.

We clearly face new challenges for Australian politics, Australian governments, Australian media and Australian society itself.

Are we up to them?