NSW Labor’s unprecedented attack on the right to protest, with support from the Liberals, is designed to exploit the fear among many communities, following the Bondi Beach terror attack.
Labor recalled parliament to ram through its Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 last Christmas Eve. They give the Police Commissioner the power to ban protests for up to three months, within 14 days of a terror incident. This includes static gatherings if police regarded them as a “breach of the peace.”
On January 7, the commissioner announced a further 14-day ban. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties denounced this as a misuse of power.
Proponents of such laws have sought to justify them on the lie that the anti-genocide movement is the context for the terror attack.
Minns implied a link between the actions of terrorists Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram and those of pro-Palestine protesters. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal went further, explicitly linking the peaceful 300,000-strong anti-genocide march over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Bondi killings.
While the new laws aim to repress the Palestine solidarity movement, their reach will be a lot broader.
The new 14-day ban stops just short of the annual Invasion Day protest on January 26 — a national outpouring for justice for First Nations peoples.
The Palestine Action Group, Jews Against the Occupation ’48 and Blak Caucus (which organises the yearly Invasion Day protests) are launching a constitutional challenge to the anti-protest laws. If this is not successful, there is a real danger that other states will follow suit with similar anti-democratic laws.
Previous anti-protest laws, introduced by both Liberal and Labor governments, have been successfully challenged in NSW courts. These new attacks on our democratic rights must also be opposed.
Minns is also looking into new “hate speech” laws to proscribe the phrase “globalise the intifada”, labelling it a “terrorist” slogan. Intifada is an Arabic word that means uprising or “to shake off.”
A woman was arrested and then released without charge when she attended a “Hands off Venezuela” protest in Gadigal Country/Sydney on January 4 wearing a T-shirt with the “globalise the intifada” slogan. She asked the police to show her which law she was breaking and they couldn’t. As she told The Guardian: “This has got nothing to do with Judaism – Judaism and Zionism are not the same thing.”
A hastily-called, Labor-stacked, parliamentary inquiry into banning such phrases has been set up and will conclude on January 12, with a report to be tabled on January 31.
Its narrow terms of reference are unambiguously pushing for more undemocratic laws. They include: “How best to prevent the use of phrases that are so inherently hateful by their nature that they lead to incitement of hatred and threaten community safety” and “Australian and international examples of best practice to combat the use of such slogans, including measures and approaches taken in the United Kingdom”.
The NSW Crimes Act already makes it an offence to publicly threaten or incite violence against a person or group on the grounds of ethno-religious origin.
Social movement groups and the NSW CCL argue that unelected NSW Police Commissioner has been given the power to restrict protests. The snap protests for Venezuela, following Donald Trump’s illegal bombings and kidnappings, show how important this implied right of political freedom is.
The “Hands off Venezuela” protest, which was peaceful until pro-US protesters tried to shut it down, came after the Australian government refused to condemn the US’s violation of international law.
Community cohesion, safety and harmony — the alleged goals of new hate speech laws — will continue to evade us while politicians refuse to call out genocides and invasions.
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[A 'Genocide is a crime; protest is not' protest has been called on January 16, 6pm at Sydney Town Hall.]