The NSW Police application in the Supreme Court to prohibit pro Palestine assemblies in Sydney on 6 and 7 October has failed. After a day of hearing and negotiations between the Police and representatives of the Palestine Action Group (PAG), agreement was reached that the assemblies will go ahead and the police will withdraw their applications to prohibit the assemblies.
The parties asked the Court to make orders that the proceeding be dismissed. Each party pays their own costs and the prohibition order applications are not pressed.
Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said, “It was such poor judgement and use of public resources that the NSW Police Force would take the organisers of the longest running peaceful anti-war protests in two decades to court to prevent their planned assemblies. Once again a grassroots community justice movement has stood up for and defended our democracy and the fundamental right to protest in the courts against the strong-arm of an emboldened law-and-order state,”
“While democracy and the right to peacefully assemble and protest has ultimately won the day through, we must see this for what it is. The right to protest in NSW has been systematically attacked by successive Labor and Liberal Governments for decades. This sort of politics sends strong signals to Police that they don’t have to tolerate and assist with peaceful protest and non-violent civil disobedience,”
“The right of all individuals to exercise freedom of speech and the right to assemble peacefully has won the day, but the reality is, it should never have been on trial. If protest was enshrined into law in NSW as it is in other States and Territories, the NSW Police Force would not be so emboldened to attempt to remove these rights,”
“It was clear to every single person in the courtroom today that the Police applications were not well made and relied on arguments based on unknowns and assumptions laden with racist and intolerant undertones. The truth of the day is that the tinder-box is not the assemblies, but the inadequacy and poor judgement of the Police, the Premier and the Prime Minister,” Ms Higginson said.