The New South Wales Labor MP Anthony D’Adam has accused the premier of taking an “incredibly dangerous position” on protests and said members of the government were afraid to speak out in support of Palestine.
The premier, Chris Minns, stirred division within the Labor caucus after he told 2GB radio on Tuesday that taxpayers would want NSW police to deal with crime instead of patrolling weekly pro-Palestine rallies, which he said had cost $5m in 2024.
Guardian Australia spoke to five Labor MPs who were concerned by Minns’ comments that police should have the power to reject a “public assembly” application – which is required to stage a protected protest in NSW – based on the cost of patrolling the rally.
D’Adam, who was sacked from his parliamentary secretary roles after he criticised NSW police tactics at a pro-Palestine demonstration earlier this year, condemned Minns’ comments.
“It’s an incredibly dangerous position that the premier has adopted,” D’Adam told the Guardian on Wednesday. “It’s actually quite a profound threat to our civil liberties to empower the police to be able to prohibit peaceful protest.”
D’Adam said Minns had “not sought to hide his position” in relation to the Israel-Gaza war and claimed government MPs were afraid to show their support for Palestine because of it.
“The premier and his office have, I know, spoken to MPs behind the scenes when they have made public comment around these issues to dissuade them from voicing those views,” D’Adam said. Minns declined to comment.
Minns has ordered a review of policing resources that have been used on Sydney’s weekly pro-Palestine protests.
Last week the premier said a protest and candlelight vigil planned to show support for Gaza and Lebanon should not go ahead.
He has expressed significant support for Israel and the local Jewish community since the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October last year.
Minns publicly reprimanded Stephen Lawrence after the first-term Labor MP accused Israel of the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967 and denying their right of return during a speech to parliament last year.
Lawrence, a former barrister who helped overturn a ban on a Sydney Black Lives Matter march during the pandemic, said on Wednesday that mass protests would occur in a “free society” whether they were “authorised” or not.
“The 1978 Mardi Gras is a cautionary tale in terms of the danger and difficulty of turning a disapproving executive view about a protest into action to actually stop it,” he said.
“It saw an ‘unauthorised protest’, by a stigmatised minority on a road, significantly disrupted by police. No one wants that again.”
Another Labor MP, who asked not to be named, said they didn’t see how protests could be lawfully “curtailed” based on cost.
They said government MPs were “absolutely” afraid to speak up about Palestine.
Minns had devoted a lot of time to supporting people in NSW with ties to Israel but hadn’t done the same for those with connections to Gaza or Lebanon, the MP said.
“I’m yet to see the premier speak in western Sydney to those members of the community who are from Arabic backgrounds who are equally affected,” they said. “He needs to be a premier for the whole community.”
Another MP said: “We live in a democracy and people have a fundamental right to protest.”
They said other MPs had said “behind closed doors” that their personal views on the Israel-Gaza war were “somewhat different” from what they’d expressed publicly.
But the MP couldn’t say whether this was because of the premier or for fear of criticism from others, including the media.
The Auburn MP, Lynda Voltz, said there was an implied freedom of political expression in Labor’s constitution which caucus members “held pretty dearly”.
She said she wasn’t afraid to speak up about the situation in Gaza.
“I’m ex-military,” she said. “You’ve got to wonder, when you’re in the tens of thousands of civilian deaths, how much regard Israel has to it.”
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, died on 7 October 2023. Of the 250 abducted that day by Hamas, half were released during a short-lived ceasefire in November and half of the remainder are thought to be dead.
More than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive began, according to local health authorities, most of them civilians and many of them children.
The premier’s office was contacted for comment but referred Guardian Australia to remarks Minns made at a press conference earlier on Wednesday.
At that press conference, Minns said he would wait for the outcome of the review.
“But my job, in addition to ensuring that there’s community harmony and public safety, is that the choices faced by the government with taxpayer funds are fully articulated and available to the people of NSW.”
