The New South Wales police commissioner has extended restrictions on protests in Sydney for another 14 days, citing ongoing community safety concerns following the alleged Bondi terror attack – although he said no further intelligence had come to light to motivate the move.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mal Lanyon, announced he would extend a declaration that no public assemblies can be authorised for Sydney’s CBD, south-west and north-west policing areas “in consideration of the ongoing community safety impacts of further protests in the wake of the Bondi attack”.
“[Bondi] was the most significant terrorist incident that we’ve had in NSW. It is right that the community has time to grieve and right that the community has time to mourn,” he told reporters. “This [decision] is not about stopping free speech.”
A 14-day declaration was made on Christmas Eve under controversial powers rushed through NSW parliament last month, which do not ban protests outright but prevent their authorisation via the state’s form 1 system following a terrorist incident. Form 1 authorisation provides protesters protection from prosecution for offences such as obstructing traffic or pedestrians.
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Following Tuesday’s decision, protest group Palestine Action Group announced they would be filing a constitutional challenge to the legislation in the NSW supreme court this week. In a statement, the group said: “None of this has anything to do with public safety or stopping ISIS-inspired terror attacks.”
“All it does is allow bad governments to silence the people’s voices.”
On Tuesday, Lanyon again insisted “peaceful” and static assemblies were not affected. Critics have argued the legislation, which also gives police move-on powers if they believe unauthorised protests have infringed the state’s summary offences act, effectively bans all protests under a declaration.
Asked if the declaration, which lasts until 20 January and can be extended for a total of up to 90 days, was likely to be extended again, meaning expected Invasion Day rallies on 26 January could not receive official authorisation, Lanyon said it was “very premature to consider that”.
“We will assess the need for a public safety declaration if that is required when we get closer to the end of this 14-day period,” he said.
The decision came in the wake of rallies held over the weekend, where hundreds of protesters gathered in Sydney’s CBD to condemn the US military strikes on Venezuela and capture of president Nicolás Maduro.
Asked if any specific incident or new intelligence had prompted the decision, Lanyon said: “No, I think really it’s still that heightened tension within the community in Australia, certainly in NSW.”
But in another response, he drew attention to Sunday’s rally, at which three people were arrested and later released without charge.
“What we have seen over the past couple of days, obviously is again, external factors from overseas, bringing people out for public assemblies, and the potential for counterprotests, which could lead to a public safety incident,” he said.
Lanyon said he was aware of one application for a public assembly currently being considered by NSW police during the 14-day period, which he said had been made invalid by the new declaration.
The premier, Chris Minns, has described civil liberties concerns as “overblown” rhetoric.
“We just can’t have a situation at the moment where mass protests rip apart our social cohesion,” he said, after the law was rushed through parliament last year, as part of an omnibus bill including gun control and hate speech legislation.
Lanyon said he had not consulted with Minns about Tuesday’s decision, which he said was made in consultation with a panel of senior police officers. He said he had spoken with the police minister, Yasmin Catley, who under the legislation must approve the decision to extend the declaration.
Catley said on Friday the government “unequivocally supports the commissioner’s decision”.
“Decisions of this nature are rightly made by the NSW police force, based on intelligence, risk assessment and their on-the-ground understanding of community safety.”
The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Timothy Roberts, who had called on police not to extend the declaration, said the use of the powers was having an “extraordinary chilling effect on our democratic rights”.
