NSW Gov’t To Look Into New Reforms Restricting Protest Laws

The NSW Government will look into new measures to restrict protest activity, including reforms whereby the NSW Police Force in the future can decline applications for protests in certain circumstances.

Premier Chris Minns has recalled the NSW parliament this coming Monday to discuss new gun law regulations as he also considers the possibility of tightening certain protests laws in the state as a result of the recent terror attack at Bondi Beach.

“My concern is that a mass demonstration in this combustible situation with our multicultural community could light a flame that would be impossible to extinguish,” Minns said.

The Premier also explained that the parliament will be asked to consider allowing the police commissioner to decline applications for protests “on the grounds”, and reasons that a protest at this moment will both stretch police resources and add to community disharmony after a terror event like the one at Bondi Beach.

“Protests right now in Sydney would be incredibly terrible for our community, they would rip apart our community,” Minns said, adding that he wants to “lower the temperature in New South Wales and in Sydney”, and that these new suggestions are an attempt for that to happen.

However, Greens MP and Justice spokesperson Sue Higginson criticised Minns’ plans to initiate protest restrictions in NSW, and said that peaceful assemblies are a fundamental civil liberty and that now is not the time to restrict civil liberties.

“If the Government is hell bent on doing this they must at the very least make such powers temporary, otherwise this move will be read in history as disingenuous opportunism,” she said.

“I hold serious concerns that controversial changes to protest laws are counter-productive to the aims of genuine social cohesion right now. These laws, like other anti-protest laws before them, seem to me like they will face significant headwinds in the Courts due to their potential to infringe on our freedom of political communication within the Constitution”.

“We have so much evidence about what solutions exist to tackle hate speech and violence and we should all be coming together to enact those solutions. It is such a shame to see a divisive response in these circumstances,” Higginson concluded.

New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) additionally condemns Minns’ plans and calls it “reckless and damaging political opportunism”.

“Connecting the horrific events of the Bondi attack in any way with recent  protests continues the harmful trend of conflating criticism of the actions of the Government of Israel with antisemitism. This undermines the community harmony that the Premier says that he is worried about,” said President of NSWCCL Timothy Roberts. 

Current protest laws in NSW require protesters to fill a ‘Form 1’ application to inform police of their intention to hold public assemblies, and these must be authorised by the police for a protest to be legal. 

However, a Form 1 application can be refused on the grounds if the assembly in question is assessed as a risk to public safety.

NSW Government recently criticised for awkward handling of different protests 

Discussion regarding whether the current protest and demonstration laws in NSW should be reformed, were raised again as recently as in November.

Here, the NSW Police Force were highly criticised for authorising a Neo-Nazi protest to take place outside the NSW Parliament building, after the protesters had filed a Form 1 application, notifying the police about their upcoming protest.

Several politicians and community leaders condemned the authorisation of this protest.

Back then Premier Minns called the protest “a shocking display of hatred, racism and anti-semitism”, and because of this, he amended the Crimes Act 1900 to give police and courts greater powers to combat any public display of Nazi ideology.

The authorisation of the Neo-Nazi protest also happened just days after the NSW Police had rejected a protest permit from the Palestine Action Group to protest a state-sponsored weapons expo at Darling Harbour. The group then gathered unlawfully and ten people were arrested and pepper sprayed by the police.

PM also announces national reforms to combat anti-semitism further

Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also announced that his federal government will introduce national reforms to “crack down” on anti-semitism in Australia in wake of Sunday’s terror attack.

These new and tougher laws will include targeting preachers promoting violence or hate speech can now be targeted with “aggravated hate speech” and “serious vilification” if based on race or racism supremacy.

The PM also expressed plans to increase penalties for these offences as well as “an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes for online threats and harassment”, and “developing a regime for listing organisations whose leaders engage in hate speech promoting violence or racial hatred”.

Albanese added that the minister for home affairs will now also have new powers to cancel or reject visas for those who spread hate and division in this country, or would do so if they were allowed to come here.