The Public Assembly Restriction Declaration (PARD) has been lifted by NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon today, eight days after it was used to target a community assembly against the visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog at Sydney Town Hall. The legislation enabling the PARD is currently subject to a constitutional challenge for unreasonably limiting the community’s implied right to political expression.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice Sue Higginson said:
“Premier Minns’ unfair protest restrictions have finally come to an end today, but they should never have been in place – let alone extended for the visit by genocide-inciter President Herzog,”
“The targeting and blaming of peaceful protest in NSW, for the horrific events of last December, was a dangerous wrongful conflation. There has been significant harm caused to the trust of police in the community, as well as to our democracy at large, the PARDs will go down in history as political failure,”
“Labor Premier Chris Minns has overseen a rapid slide into an authoritarian and draconian police-state in NSW. The constitutional challenge to these anti-protest laws will continue, and the community will continue to call for accountability in the face of aggressive posturing against protest by the political leaders in NSW,” Ms Higginson said.