The so-called “nice guy” Premier Mike Baird is introducing laws in New South Wales that are designed to intimidate ordinary people from taking part in legitimate protests.
The NSW government's new anti-protest laws, which it is dressing up as being about public safety, were passed on March 15. Now, despite police minister Stuart Ayres admitting crime rates are falling, the government wants to give the NSW Police Force extraordinary powers to stop protests from even being organised.
The so-called “nice guy” Premier Mike Baird is introducing laws in New South Wales that are designed to intimidate ordinary people from taking part in legitimate protests.
The NSW government's new anti-protest laws, which it is dressing up as being about public safety, were passed on March 15. Now, despite police minister Stuart Ayres admitting crime rates are falling, the government wants to give the NSW Police Force extraordinary powers to stop protests from even being organised.
The government's shift to authoritarianism was on full display at the peaceful protest against the new protest laws outside NSW Parliament on March 15. Multiple riot police vehicles, mobile police lock-ups and squads of police on horses were deployed in an effort to intimidate the hundreds of people who had come, in pouring rain, to make their point.
The display of police force became obvious as Aboriginal activists took to the streets to make the point about who is already bearing the brunt of the state's authoritarianism — themselves.
Ken Canning told Green Left Weekly he was one of two Aboriginal activists assaulted by police that day. Canning is the lead Senate candidate for the Socialist Alliance. He said Aboriginal people already have to put up with racist treatment, and these new powers will only make things worse.
“After we marched towards the State Library, we were confronted by a wall of riot squad members. Even though we stopped just short of them, at least two Indigenous people were assaulted by riot squad officers using the heels of their hands to push heavily into our chests around the heart area. I was then threatened with pepper spray.”
The Criminal Legislation Amendment (Organised Crime and Public Safety) Bill 2016 was introduced on March 22. It will allow a “senior police officer” to make decision over whether they believe someone should be “prohibited” from being in a public place “or at premises or another area”.
This sort of legislation is open to wide interpretation, and while it purports to be about stopping “organised crime” and for “public safety” it is aimed at people the police determine are meddlesome — protesters.
Every year the NSW police will take one of the organisers of the annual march to demand justice for the murder of TJ Hickey, who died after his bike hit a fence after being chased by police, to court to try and stop the protest.
Every year, the NSW Supreme Court throws out the police objection. This new law will allow police to simply shut the protest down — and arrest those who try to defend their right to march and protest.
Declaring people “prohibited” is the stuff of scary movies and a creeping authoritarianism from the powers-that-be.
Baird and his predecessor Barry O'Farrell have a track record of bringing in such laws. Ugur Nedim from Sydney Criminal Lawyers has listed a number of draconian changes to the laws that help criminalise protesters.
Under the guise of fighting “terrorism” or combating organised crime over the last five years the NSW government has bought in laws that: allow the police to shoot first and ask questions later; reverse the presumption of innocence; allow for the police to not give their names and place of duty when searching and arresting people; allow for the indefinite extension of prison sentences; remove the right to silence; allow the police to conduct warrantless searches; and remove “spousal privilege” that had protected people from prosecution for failing to dob in their spouses.
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione told Fairfax Media on March 22 that the new law would allow the police to be more “flexible”. Scipione became commissioner just months before Sydney's CBD was locked down in the biggest crackdown on the right to protest NSW ever seen — the APEC summit.
New anti-protest laws were rushed through to stop individuals from entering parts of the CBD and the police raided homes to intimidate people in the weeks leading up to the summit.
Parts of the city were declared off limits, and NSW Police — not to mention US and Australian security agencies — were given extraordinary powers. Some of the laws being passed now are reminiscent of those days.
At the time, the Chasers comedy team made a mockery of the NSW government's vigilante approach, helping bring people into the streets several days later.
While the new laws will not stop dissent, it will make it harder for people of conscience to organise to express it.
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