South Australia's upper house has passed laws to significantly increase penalties for people who engage in disruptive protests, after a marathon debate spanning more than 14 hours.
Upper house MPs spent all night debating the changes to the Summary Offences Act, which mean anyone charged with obstructing a public place could be fined up to $50,000 - up from $750 - or face up to three months' in jail.
The Greens' proposed amendments to send the bill to a committee, give it an expiry date and add a reasonableness test, were all voted down by the government earlier this morning.
But an SA Best amendment to strike out reckless intention, which was also supported by the Greens, passed.
"That's the one element I think that every group we spoke to said they were extremely concerned about," SA Best MLC Connie Bonaros told ABC Radio Adelaide's Nikolai Beilharz and Stacey Lee.
Ms Bonaros said while she was "tremendously proud" of the crossbench's efforts, she was unhappy with the bill overall.
"This bill in its entirety is still an indictment on our democratic processes," she said.
"The penalties that the government and the opposition have proposed are still woefully, woefully an overreach."
Greens MLC Robert Simms said while he was "really disappointed" that his party's amendments did not get through, he was pleased that SA Best's did.
"It's been a very long and draining debate but I actually feel really proud of the role the crossbench has played here in this process," he said.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the changes to update the penalties were "to reflect modern standards".
"But let me be clear about this, there's no change to protest laws," he said.
"The Public Assemblies Act, which has been in place since 1972, remains completely unchanged, which is important."
The bill, which passed the lower house a fortnight ago, was introduced in response to disruptive Extinction Rebellion protests, including one involving a woman who abseiled down a rope from the Morphett Street bridge and was suspended above North Terrace, causing major delays to traffic.
"What we are doing is making sure people who hang themselves upside down off of bridges, or completely shut down our city, with no reference to due process or the rights of others, can be held to account," Mr Malinauskas said.
Ambulance Employees Association SA secretary Leah Watkins rejected suggestions that the Extinction Rebellion protest along North Terrace had blocked the passage of ambulances to and from the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
"I think that particular point needs to be debunked entirely," she said.
"Our ambos are highly trained, they go through extra emergency driver training, and they do this sort of thing day in, day out," she said.
"That particular event, with the woman who was abseiling from the bridge, was just yet another obstacle that they would very appropriately moved around.
"I think it is a stretch to say that due to that risk particularly that that substantially led to this law change needing to occur."
Opposition leader David Speirs said the decision to increase penalties "meets the expectations of South Australians".
"This was about increasing penalties to give the judiciary something more significant in their toolkit when making decisions around people who do ridiculous or silly things in terms of protest," he said.
"It wasn't about stopping people undertaking lawful protests, which we see all the time."
The changes were opposed by human rights groups, the Law Society of South Australia, as well as multiple trade unions.
Civil society groups — including the Human Rights Law Centre, Amnesty International SA/NT, and the South Australian Council of Social Service — condemned the passage of the bill in a joint statement today.
SA Unions Secretary Dale Beasley criticised the "hasty passage" of the bill.
"The government had an opportunity yesterday to defer the Bill for proper consultation, and it's galling that they refused to do so and instead pushed it through the upper house," he said.
The bill itself has sparked protest, including last Friday when about 500 people marched through Adelaide's CBD, and again yesterday when hundreds of protesters gathered below South Australian parliament's upper house.
Politicians speak for hours in marathon session
The marathon debate, which began 4:15pm on Tuesday and finished just before 7am on Wednesday, included lengthy speeches from members of the crossbench.
SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo spoke for five hours, while Greens MLC Robert Simms spoke for nearly three.
Mr Simms said the crossbench wanted to ensure the bill "got appropriate scrutiny" in the upper house, after it was "rushed through after just 22 minutes of debate" in the lower house.
"We had all received a lot of correspondence by members of the community and from community groups, people were just outraged about the bill," he told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee.
Mr Simms said crossbench members attempted to adjourn the debate "at numerous times".
"And the Labor and Liberal parties blocked us from doing that, and just insisted that we sit through the night," he said.
During her speech, which began about 2:30am, SA Best MLC Connie Bonaros — who wore a shirt emblazoned with the words "Arrest Me Pete" — described the legislation as "offensive and hideous" and said the changes amount to "crap law".
