Magistrate backs right to protest

BY MAURICE FARRELL

SYDNEY — On October 27, a Hornsby Local Court magistrate agreed with protest organisers that the police acted illegally on July 19 in blocking off access to the front of the home of the then immigration minister, Philip Ruddock.

Dismissing a charge of assaulting police against Mia Kriznic, an organiser with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union who attended July 19 protest, the magistrate said that it was clear that the police were not acting lawfully in the execution of their duty, and that therefore Kriznic's arrest was unlawful, given that a Supreme Court order on July 18 had given a green light to the protest.

The protest was against the federal government's immigration policies, and the organisers wanted to contrast conditions in Australia's immigration detention centres with the comforts enjoyed by Ruddock in his large house.

"The decision by the magistrate today totally vindicates the refugee protest", said Ian Rintoul, a spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, which organised the July 19 protest. "The right to protest has been under considerable pressure in recent days, both at a state and federal government level. There have even been attempts to silence parliamentarians during the recent visit by George Bush. We hope this decision will remind the politicians that the right to dissent is an essential democratic right that cannot be minimised without being lost."

Legal rights activist Dale Mills, who was also arrested at the protest but not charged, said he has already announced his intention of suing the police for compensation. "The comments of Magistrate Taylor, although not binding on other courts, are very welcome. It shows that the police are not above the law, and it is always necessary for protesters to hold the police as accountable as possible within the limits of the system we have got," Mills said.

From Green Left Weekly, November 5, 2003.

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From GLW issue 560