Today the Greens, alongside spokespeople from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, the Maritime Union of Australia, Rising Tide, Extinction Rebellion, Palestine Action Group, First Mardi Gras Inc, Students for Palestine Sydney Uni and North East Forest Alliance called a press conference to address the recent crackdown on the right to protest and call on the Premier to walk back the anti-democratic laws infringing on this fundamental right .
Earlier the same day, Greens MP and Democracy spokesperson Kobi Shetty MP introduced a bill to repeal controversial anti-protest laws, introduced by the former Liberal Government and supported by Labor in 2022 and Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice Sue Higginson moved a motion on a Matter of Public Importance triggering a debate on the Policing of Protest in the Upper House.
Supporters packed the seats of the public gallery to listen to the debate and filled out the rooftop garden as spokespeople cracked down on the Premier’s recent string of actions signalling the further tightening of a chokehold on the right to protest in NSW, including a “user-pays” system.
Quotes Attributable to Various speakers:
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Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice, Sue Higginson said:
“Today was a wake up call for the Minns Labor Government. We had wharfies, lawyers, original 78er’s, anti-war organisers, forest advocates and young climate heroes all standing alongside the Greens to deliver one clear message: enough is enough,”
“The Premier has gone too far. He has stirred division in his own caucus, he has lost control of the police and he has angered the people. We will not sit by while the Minns Labor Government drags us down the slippery slope of state oppression where our right to protest is threatened because this is an assault on our democracy,” Ms Higginson said.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Democracy, Kobi Shetty said:
“ In the last month we have seen repeated attacks on the right to protest from the NSW Labor Government. Most recently the appalling suggestion from the Premier that police should be given the power to veto protest applications at their discretion. This suggestion is the latest in a slew of protest busting initiatives from the Minns government,”
“The Greens oppose these draconian anti-protest laws, and I was pleased today to introduce the Greens bill to repeal these undemocratic laws. The right to protest is a cornerstone of democracy and must be fully reinstated. NSW Labor must repeal these undemocratic laws as a matter of urgency, and I urge them to support the Greens Bill,” Ms Shetty said.
President of NSW Council for Civil Liberties Lydia Shelly said:
“The NSW Council for Civil Liberties will always stand up and defend our democratic freedoms. Our right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy. The silencing of dissent in this state has gone on for too long. Our democracy is under threat from laws that criminalise and repress the right to protest,”
“The public will not benefit from these [proposed] laws; where only the rich will be considered worthy to be able to express a political opinion. In a cost of living crisis, for such laws to be introduced, is scandalous and a betrayal to every person in NSW who is struggling to make ends meet. Their voices matter just as much as those who have not been touched by the cost of living crisis,”
“The idea that you can arrest your way towards social cohesion is fundamentally flawed. The idea that you can safeguard democracy by repressing and criminalising the right to protest, is Orwellian,” Ms Shelly said.
Spokesperson for MUA, Paul Keating said:
“These laws criminalise the right to protest, they are a stain on this Parliament, on Chris Minns, and his Government. The right to protest is union business. It’s union business to stand alongside our communities as they fight for their rights, and the unions will stand behind the Greens in this fight,”
“The trade union movement in NSW condemns these laws and any strengthening of further anti-protest laws. We will challenge every politician, every Government who tries to get in the way of the right to protest. We will never ever forgive any politician who does not stand on the side of our communities. This NSW Government has got a use-by date. Chris Minns will not see another term, and he doesn’t deserve it,” Mr Keating said.
Spokesperson for Palestine Action Group, Josh Lees said:
“In the last 2 weeks the NSW Government has carried on an extraordinary campaign against our right to protest against Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon. They tried to ban our peaceful march, then when that failed they mobilised hundreds of riot police to intimidate people attending a candlelight vigil. Then Chris Minns’ had the nerve to complain about the cost of policing, as if this whole fiasco of over-policing was our decision and not his,”
“If the Premier is so concerned with the costs of protests why doesn’t he address the reasons we are protesting in the first place? His Government continues to actively support the state of Israel as it carries out a genocide in Gaza. In two weeks the NSW Government is hosting the NSW Defence Summit, with weapons companies operating right here in Sydney that are supplying, and profiting from, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and invasion of Lebanon,” Mr Lees said.
Spokesperson for First Mardi Gras Inc, Paul Keating said:
“We won the right to get the police out of protest back in 1978 and one of the results of the terrible event. We condemn the Police Commissioner for going to the court and trying to shut down peaceful protest. That’s a political action and she should not have done it. We cannot have the police being an arm of political expression,” Mr Keating said.
Spokesperson for Rising Tide, Zack Schofield said:
“As Australians, our rights at work and in our democracy are the product of peaceful non-violent disruption by everyday people from the union movement, the suffragettes and feminist, and civil rights movements. Undermining protest is anti-democratic, and it’s time that anti-democratic Governments should be removed,”
“Rising Tide activists facing fine-only offences for the first time have been denied bail or set punitive bail conditions due to pressure from the NSW Government,” Mr Schofield said.
Spokesperson for North East Forest Alliance Susie Russell said:
“Last week I was arrested for peacefully protesting the destruction of Greater Glider habitat in Bulga State Forest. Despite only receiving charges that would result in a fine if found guilty, I was kept overnight in the police station and had bail conditions stipulating not to engage in any other protest activity. What we are seeing is a serious culture of police overreach emboldened by these laws – the kind of laws that will affect all of us, eventually,” Ms Russell said.