Mask at protests Victoria: Benny Zable has protested in a costume for decades

Benny Zable has been wearing his “Greedozer” costume to protests for 45 years.

One of his retired gas masks, with a peace sign on the crown of its head, sits on display in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Another, at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Photos of him hang in Old Treasury Building beside the Victorian parliament.

But the 80-year-old Melbourne man’s extravagant costume, which he’s worn to hundreds of environmental and anti-war actions, was at risk of being criminalised until the Victorian government this week backed down on its plan to ban masks at protests .

Until the backflip, Zable was preparing to challenge the constitutionality of such a move in the courts with the Human Rights Law Centre.

Greedozer, his street-art persona, allows him to reach more people