Pro-Palestine protesters will be legally protected while marching across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday after a New South Wales supreme court decision.
In her judgment, Justice Belinda Rigg said “the march at this location is motivated by the belief that the horror and urgency of the situation in Gaza demands an urgent and extraordinary response from the people of the world”.
“The evidence indicates there is significant support for the march.”
The Palestine Action Group has claimed as many as 50,000 people will take part in the march across the bridge, protesting against Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the starvation of children.
Earlier this week, police rejected an application from organisers for it to facilitate the march. Police argued there was not enough time to prepare a traffic management plan and warned of a potential crowd crush and huge disruptions.
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Once the application known as a “form 1” was rejected by police, the supreme court was required to decide whether the protest should be considered as “authorised”, which provides some legal protections to demonstrators.
Rigg said the fact the demonstration was likely to cause significant inconvenience to residents and others “is far from determinative”.
“If matters such as this were to be determinative, no assembly involving inconvenience would be permitted,” she said.
“To deprive such groups the opportunity to demonstrate in an authorised public assembly would inevitably lead to resentment and alienation.”
Rigg noted submissions from Palestine Action Group’s spokesperson, Josh Lees, who told the court a demonstration on the bridge would send an “an urgent and massive response” to the crisis in Gaza.
“The public interest in freedom of expression, at this time, in the manner contemplated, for the reasons advanced, is very high,” Rigg said.
Rigg rejected any suggestion that her decision would condone any antisocial behaviour or violence at the demonstration or “ambulances not getting to hospital on time”.
The court ruling means protesters will have immunity from being charged under the summary offences act. This includes protection from offences like “obstructing” traffic – crucial in this particular protest.
However, police will still have access to a range of other powers to stem so-called “anti-social behaviour” or other types of offending. This includes showing prohibited symbols.
David Mejia-Canales, a senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the authorisation “doesn’t give people the ability to engage in all types and all forms of activism”.
“It’s really important for people who do attend that they follow the directions of organisers and marshals.”
There is no authority to ban protest or deem it unlawful in NSW. This is because while there is no express right to protest in the state, it is covered in common law and by the Australian constitution, which the high court has found implies the right to freedom of political communication.
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The Palestinian Action Group’s lawyer, Felicity Graham, told the court on Friday that organisers would proceed with the demonstration regardless of the decision.
“I have the firmest of instructions that Palestine Action Group are proceeding with this protest … It cannot be stopped,” Graham said.
Lees said the group was willing to delay protest by up to three weeks if the police were willing to work with them.
The police’s barrister Lachlan Gyles argued that what was being asked was “unprecedented” in terms of the “risk, the lack of time to prepare, and, of course, the location, which is one of the main arteries in one of the largest cities in the world”.
“There’s been no liaison whatsoever with any of the agencies and government authorities who would be involved, most particularly Transport for New South Wales,” he said.
The decision came after several NSW Labor MPs defied their premier, Chris Minns, by vowing to attend the march. Minns had earlier opposed the protest and said “we cannot allow Sydney to descend into chaos”.
Labor’s Stephen Lawrence, Anthony D’Adam, Lynda Voltz, Cameron Murphy and Sarah Kaine were among 15 NSW politicians who signed an open letter on Thursday evening calling on the government to facilitate “a safe and orderly event” on Sunday.
The Greens justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said: “This landmark decision is a win for humanity, a win for starving children in Gaza, and a crushing defeat for this anti-protest Minns Labor government.”
The state opposition leader, Mark Speakman, said he respected the freedom to protest, including with rallies and marches, “but allowing the takeover of the Harbour Bridge for a protest in the middle of the day sets the wrong precedent for the future”.
“There are plenty of other places to protest,” he said.
