NSW Premier Considering Restricting Protest To The Domain

The NSW premier is reportedly considering designating the Domain as a protest site to avoid the “negative impact” demonstrations have on the city.

Minns’ exploration into ways of curtailing protest has escalated since the Bondi terror attack with, NSW Parliament passing Minns’ Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill on Christmas Eve, introducing tougher gun laws and extending the powers of the police commissioner to restrict protests for up to three months follow the declaration of a terrorist event.

It comes after years of the Minns government targeting protesters, which came to a head last year in his failed attempt to block the March For Humanity across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“We’re looking to change aspects of the law that we think are just putting an unnecessary burden on safety and security,” the premier said on Wednesday.

“I understand, and I accept, and I think it’s important to have public demonstrations in a big city like Sydney. I’ve never said the opposite, but there’s also got to be an understanding that the highest and most important obligation of a government is to protect its citizens.

“You’ve got literally thousands of NSW police that need to be deployed to marshal or protect public assemblies at the expense of investigating domestic violence offences or keeping the rest of the community safe.”

Protest “week after week after week” has an impact, Minns says

As per reporting from The Guardian, sources have said the government is considering several options to crack down on protests while bypassing the constitutionally implied right to political free speech, including using planning laws and use criteria to designate certain areas as suitable for protest.

One such area is the Domain, with Minns telling reporters the government hadn’t yet made a final decision on the issue.

“A a general point, I’ve made it repeatedly now, but having central part of the Sydney CBD occupied week after week after week does have an impact, and it can be a negative impact, on other people wanting to enjoy the city.

“So I’m not going to make any announcements about that today, but we’re keeping our mind open to the idea of where protests will take place in the city, keeping in mind that other people who aren’t in the city to protest and might be running a business or wanting to have a barbecue or a picnic with friends, they’ve got every right to enjoy the city as well.”

On Monday, tens of thousands of protesters made their way through the CBD to mark Invasion Day, completing the action largely without incident, despite the restrictions on form 1 authorisations.

Sydney-based civil rights groups, Palestine Action Group, Jews Against Occupation ‘48 and the Blak Caucus last month announced their intention to formally challenge the new legislation in court, arguing that premier Chris Minns is unfairly conflating the attack with the pro-Palestinian movement.

President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Timothy Roberts, condemned the restriction on protest authorisations, saying that limiting the use of free speech and assembly in response to a terrorist attack was reckless.

“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,” he said. This undermines the community harmony that the Premier says that he is worried about.

“In attempting to restrict protest this way the Premier is further dividing a community that is already trying to heal in an environment worryingly filled with misinformation and hateful rhetoric. We cannot have a ‘summer of calm’ and ‘togetherness’ with a government eroding our democratic freedoms”.