Crackdowns on civil liberties are a step in the wrong direction
The NSW Greens have grave concerns about proposed new laws to allow police to refuse all peaceful assemblies during undefined periods of terrorism designations.
Greens MP and Spokesperson for Justice Sue Higginson said,
“In the aftermath of the horrific antisemitic Bondi Beach mass shooting, Australians have been called upon to unify, to wrap our arms around the Jewish community, and to check in on one another, and we must all heed those calls,
“We have not been called upon to divide communities by infringing upon civil liberties. Peaceful assembly is a fundamental civil liberty and now is not the time to restrict our civil liberties. The Government should not do this,”
“If the Government is hell bent on doing this they must at the very least make such powers temporary, otherwise this move will be read in history as disingenuous opportunism,”
“There is such an important distinction to make between peaceful and nonviolent protests for peace, and gatherings with the express intention of hate speech, hate preaching, or violence. Police have so many tools at their disposal to address gatherings where hate speech may occur, and they should use those tools,
“Now is the time for unity in the fight against all forms of hate and radicalisation. We need to make laws and take action based on evidence, reason and need,
“Together with the Greens, the NSW Government has a chance to pass world-leading gun reform which will remove guns from extremists who would seek to harm the innocent. I think it’s such a shame to depart from that by assigning blame to peaceful protests in this moment,”
“I hold serious concerns that controversial changes to protest laws are counter-productive to the aims of genuine social cohesion right now. These laws, like other anti-protest laws before them, seem to me like they will face significant headwinds in the Courts due to their potential to infringe on our freedom of political communication within the Constitution,”
“Our protest laws are already some of the most restrictive in the world. Form 1 applications can be refused on the grounds of genuine risks to public safety,
“There are no planned demonstrations right now, in fact many events including events calling for peace in Gaza have been postponed out of respect. I think the Premier’s assumption that a disrespectful demonstration could occur is out of step with the outpouring of respect, love and compassion we have seen from the people of New South Wales,
“We are entirely committed to tackling antisemitism and racism wherever it occurs, limiting peaceful assembly is not how we do this,
“For most of this year in the NSW Parliament the Greens have been opposing efforts to water down gun laws and calling for more investment in programs to counter violent extremism,
“We have so much evidence about what solutions exist to tackle hate speech and violence and we should all be coming together to enact those solutions. It is such a shame to see a divisive response in these circumstances.”