Minns government undermined social cohesion with NSW protest restrictions, constitutional challenge hears

Groups the Blak Caucus, the Palestine Action Group (PAG) and Jews Against the Occupation ’48 filed the challenge to the NSW protest restrictions in early January, arguing the restrictions ‘impermissibly burden the implied constitutional freedom of communication’. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/AAP

Lawyers for three protest groups have argued that a Minns government law which effectively banned marches in Sydney’s CBD made its own objective of enhancing social cohesion “worse”.

On Thursday, the NSW court of appeal heard the constitutional challenge against the anti-protest law, which was passed in the wake of the Bondi beach terror attack.