The Invasion Day rally will march from Hyde Park to the Yabun Festival on January 26 and Blak Caucus is calling for a big show of support. Blak Caucus had vowed to march, despite undemocratic protest restrictions imposed by the NSW Labor government.
Blak Caucus spokesperson Gumbaynggirr, Bundjalung and Dunghutti woman Elizabeth Jarrett met with NSW Police on January 20 to inform them the march would be going ahead.
Shortly afterwards, Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon announced he had extended the Public Assembly Restriction Declaration (PARD) restrictions, but they would not cover the Invasion Day/Day of Mourning march route.
Before meeting with the police, Jarrett told AAP: “We're not here to cause any harm to the police or anyone in society … The police should respectfully stand aside and let us march.” After the meeting she said:“People power won today so let’s go! Everyone out for Invasion Day. Organise, Mobilise, Decolonise!”
The new restricted areas stretch east from the CBD, covering Pymont-Darling Harbour, the CBD but excluding Hyde Park and most of the Eastern suburbs.
Black Caucus and other civil rights groups credit their significant push back against the restrictions on the freedom of speech and assembly for this decision.
Labor’s anti-protest laws, which it passed on December 24 with Coalition support, give an unelected bureaucrat — the NSW Police Commissioner — the power to decide which protests can go ahead for up to three months, in 14-day increments, following a terrorist incident designation.
Lawyer Nick Hanna, who gave a briefing on the new laws to a NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson-organised webinar on January 20, said they give “unprecedented power to the police” who can determine “who wide their reach will be” and to “choose which protests it allows”.
Hanna said the commissioner’s new PARD declaration was a win, but that the commissioner can also change it at any time. He also said the definition of what constitutes a “terrorist act” is so broad, it can be used to shut down the implied right to free speech, for which there is no constitutional right.
Paul Silva from Blak Caucus, who led a fiery protest against Black deaths in custody on January 18, which challenged the police, promised: “We will be back for Invasion Day and we will march”.
A far-right rally, organised by March Australia, from Prince Alfred Park to Moore Park on January 26, is also allowable under the new PARD.
A constitutional challenge to the undemocratic laws, led by Blak Caucus, Palestine Action Group and Jews Against the Occupation ‘48, is due to be heard on January 29.
Palestine Action Group and other anti-genocide groups are also planning protests across the country when Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrives. The invitation, extended by Prime Minister Antony Albanese, came despite Israel’s genocide in Gaza.