NSW protest ban to be lifted ahead of Australia Day demonstrations if rallies held in certain areas

Protests in NSW will now be allowed again with the State’s Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon greenlighting demonstrations in certain areas of Sydney ahead of opposing Invasion Day and March for Australia rallies planned for Australia Day.

While marching protests were banned in the aftermath of the Bondi terrorist attack, new restrictions will now only apply to areas of central and eastern Sydney so it is family friendly.

But rallies are being allowed again in Hyde Park, a short walk from Town Hall train station in the city, where an Aboriginal Invasion Day rally with anti-Israel elements is planned for January 26.

“I’m satisfied that that reduces the risk to the community,” Mr Lanyon told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon.

“On Australia Day, I expect that we’ll have tens of thousands of community members: mums and dads, boys and girls wanting to come into the CBD.

“This is about ensuring that we enable people to protest, enable free speech but make sure that the community remains safe.”

A March for Australia protest to keep the national day unchanged is also planned for January 26 at noon. The location at Prince Alfred Park in Surry Hills, near Central train station, is outside the protest restriction zone.

The tighter protest restriction zone includes Bondi Beach, where 15 innocent people killed last month in an anti-Semitic act of violence.

“I think it’s appropriate that we are respectful to the community out there,” Mr Lanyon said. “That community is still grieving.”

Protest curbs have been lifted in other parts of Sydney under the updated Public Assembly Restriction Declaration, giving the Police Commissioner the power to ban demonstrations for three months after a terrorist attack, in rolling, two-week blocks.

That means organisers can notify police of their intention to hold a public rally outside the restriction zone, with a form one permit required to be submitted a week in advance, with a “significant police presence” promised for next week.

More than 1500 police are being deployed across Sydney on Monday, with 500-plus dedicated to managing and monitoring protests.

“Because a protest is authorised does not mean that hate speech, intolerance and threat to the community will be taken,” he said.

Ahead of the decision, organisers of Invasion Day rallies had vowed to hold demonstrations on Australia Day regardless, with a mass gathering planned for Hyde Park at 10am on January 26, to protest against commemorating the 1788 arrival of British convicts.

The Police Commissioner insisted the Blak Caucus organisers did not get special treatment, acknowledging community tension would happen regardless of whether or not protest bans were extended.

“It is not about the First Nations protest,” Mr Lanyon said.

“We have significant and ongoing discussions with all protest organisers.”

Some Aboriginal and left-wing activists regard the upcoming 238th anniversary of the First Fleet arriving at Sydney Cove as a day symbolising colonisation. The Blak Caucus group also condemns Israel on its social media pages, with images combining the Aboriginal and Palestinian flags.

“No day should ever be celebrated that marks invasion, mass murder and harm of other human beings,” Blak Caucus organiser Paul Silva told his Facebook followers.

“There is nothing to celebrate in genocide, only survival and resistance.”

The NSW Parliament, two days before Christmas, passed the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill which gave the State’s Police Commissioner new powers to temporarily ban protests.

Labor’s new laws ban marching protests and give police the power to move on protesters, standing still, if they are blocking a footpath or a road.

They passed both houses of Parliament - with the Liberal Party in Opposition supporting the Labor Government - nine days after 15 innocent people were killed at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Australia’s worst-ever terrorist attack took place on the first day of the Jewish Hanukkah festival.

Protests were held last week against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s planned visit to Sydney - now confirmed to be occurring on February 7 in the Israeli media.

Another rally was held in Sydney on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of Aboriginal man David Dungay Jr dying in custody at Sydney’s Long Bay jail.