A law clamping down on protests following an antisemitic mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach was overturned by a court on Thursday, a written ruling showed.
Activists had challenged the New South Wales legislation, enacted 10 days after the December 14 attack which killed 15 people and wounded dozens at a beach-side Hanukkah festival.
The law gave police the power to restrict public assemblies in declared areas, making it impossible to get a permit for any protests and allowing officers to order people to move away.
The state government pushed for the crackdown to protect cohesion and community safety at a time of high tensions, the Court of Appeal heard.
But the legal provisions were “constitutionally impermissible”, Chief Justice Andrew Bell found in a written ruling.
They effectively discouraged all forms of protest in the declared area, irrespective of the purpose and possible impact on social cohesion, he said.
“The impugned provisions infringe the implied freedom of political communication,” the court ruled, declaring them invalid.
Immediately after the protest law was passed in December, the state’s police chief declared the first restrictions across a large swathe of Sydney.
Clampdowns continued in various forms until February, including during a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog when police and demonstrators clashed in central Sydney.
Pro-Palestinian activist Josh Lees, who was one of three plaintiffs in the case, said New South Wales Premier Chris Minns had long sought to ban protests, especially over Gaza.
“While Israel and the US wage endless war, destroying the lives of millions of people, supported by Australian governments, they are continuing to try to rip up our democratic rights to protest,” the Palestine Action Group spokesman said in a statement.
Minns said the government stood by its decision on the law.
“This was in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack our country has seen, in which 15 innocent lives were lost,” he said in a statement to Australian media.
“We believe it was necessary and important for Sydney at the time.”
