Image: Steven Saphore/AAP
NSW Premier Chris Minns has announced the newest laws restricting protests near places of worship, a month after the NSW Supreme Court overturned a similar legislation.
The state government’s new bill will give police authorities the power to issue move-on orders if they see protestors harassing and obstructing people from entering their places of worship.
Minns announced the change on Tuesday, 11 November, during Question Time. The bill is due to be introduced next week, with Guardian Australia reporting the bill wasn’t discussed in the Labor caucus that morning.
The new bill centres on the now-defunct Crimes Amendment (Places of Worship) Bill 2025, which enabled police authorities to issue move-on orders to protesters, regardless of their cause, in or around places of worship.
Updated laws after Supreme Court ruled initial Bill unlawful
Justice Anna Mitchelmore of the Supreme Court had ruled that the Places of Worship Bill gave authority to unlawfully restrict the implied freedom to communicate about politics, as suggested by Australia’s constitution, after it was challenged in the form of protests.
As a result, the bill was considered invalid and unconstitutional since October 2025.
The original bill was sparked by a protest outside the Great Synagogue during a talk by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) member. The change was discussed by Minns in the fallout of the neo-Nazi rally outside parliament on Saturday, 8 November, calling for the abolition of the “Jewish Lobby.”
Jack Eltis, who submitted the Form 1 for the neo-Nazi display on behalf of “White Australia,” said the group received guidance from supportive lawyers and barristers and was told the banner they planned to present didn’t meet the guidelines to fall under hate-speech laws.
Minns and Police Minister Yasmin Catley were asked why they and NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon were not informed about the rally beforehand. Minns said he is reviewing how information is shared between the police and the Premier’s department.
Thurtell’s apology to the NSW Police Commissioner
NSW Speaker Greg Piper and NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Peter Thurtell mentioned that they had advance notice, and Thurtell later acknowledged the mishap.
“In hindsight, it was an oversight of mine not to tell the commissioner because of the organisational, political and public interest in this group, and I have since apologised to the commissioner for that oversight,” said Thurtell to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Dural caravan hoax the catalyst for anti protest laws
During Tuesday’s new legislation announcement, Minns also shared the Australian federal police’s view that the Dural caravan explosives incident was a hoax.
“We also need to address directly the assertion that antisemitism is a hoax, that the Dural caravan plot, the so-called Dural caravan plot, was a hoax … it emboldens extremists, and they used that rhetoric to justify their appalling, obnoxious behaviour on Macquarie Street,” said Minns
The government is contemplating stretching the ban on Nazi symbols to include its related chants and slogans after reports of the Hitler Youth slogan “blood and honour” on Saturday. Additionally, the NSW government is reviewing the removal of the 2028 sunset clause’s expiration date on an offence prohibiting the incitement of racial hatred.
Greens MP Sue Higginson calls Bill “another knee-jerk reaction” chipping away civil liberties
Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice Sue Higginson condemned the neo-Nazi rally, but reasons that Labor’s protest laws hit peaceful activists, not neo-Nazis.
“There are existing criminal offences for racial hatred and vilification. We do not need another knee-jerk reaction from the Premier that chips away at civil liberties and makes it easier for police to target the wrong people,” said Higginson.
“We cannot simply arrest our way out of every problem, and the Greens will continue to hold this Government to account with their lazy approach to complex issues. We will always stand against hate, racism and antisemitism, but we will not stand by while our rights and freedoms are traded away in the name of political expediency.”
NSW Attorney General says the protest laws will happen
Attorney General Michael Daley notes that NSW’s new protest laws regarding the move-on order won’t be blocked by the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the previous Places of Worship Bill. He added that while the ruling invalidated the move-on powers, it didn’t touch ordinary offences.
“The supreme court’s decision did not affect the offence of intentionally blocking, impeding, harassing, intimidating or threatening a person accessing a place of worship, and that is important.”
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