'In Defence of Dissent'
Mapping the repression of protest rights in Australia and
identifying strategies communities can use to protect them
Our new report in collaboration with Grata Fund analyses key trends in the restriction of protest rights in Australia - corporate clampdown on opposition, criminalisation of peaceful protest, over-policing, government misuse of emergency powers and the use of notification systems as approval regimes for protests. Using data from legal observer organisation and independent media sources, the report provides a picture of protest repression around Australia between 2019-2024.
The report identifies litigation and legislative pathways to protecting the right to protest that can be used by protestors, advocates, community organisations and campaigners.
Email the report to your MP
1. Find your local State and Federal MP’s email using this tool: https://heymp.com.au/
2. Email your State and Federal MP using the following template and cc’ing in anastasia.radievska@australiandemocracy.org.au
Dear NAME,
I’m writing to share a new report about the state of protest rights in Australia and ask what actions you’re taking to ensure our democratic rights are adequately protected.
A report from Australian Democracy Network and Grata Fund has found that protest rights in Australia are being severely restricted through corporate clampdown on opposition, criminalisation of peaceful protest, over-policing, government misuse of emergency powers and the use of notification systems as approval regimes for protests.
Key findings include:
Imprisonment sentences for civil disobedience have increased ten-fold in the last five years, with nine activists engaged in civil disobedience have been sentenced to a combined total of 50 months imprisonment.
Police appear to be engaging in over-policing, particularly at protests by marginalised groups including protests carried out by First Nations communities and South West Asian and North African (SWANA) communities.
Communities peacefully engaging in protest have been increasingly subject to heavy-handed militarised policing, including more frequent deployment of dangerous police weapons such as OC spray (pepper spray), tear gas, batons, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
The use of OC spray has increased in the last year, having been used at 11 protests in 2023-24, compared to seven in the five years prior.
People with physical disabilities and children are being seriously impacted by heavy-handed, militarised policing. For example, three incidents involved people with disabilities, with police removing a person from their wheelchair in one instance, and forcefully moving and damaging a wheelchair in another. Four involved children, including four children aged 16 and under being pepper sprayed and a child in a pram caught up in a police kettle, a controversial police tactic also known as containment or corralling.
Protest notification and pre-approval regimes are increasingly operating as de facto ‘authorisation’ systems, which runs counter to Australia’s democratic obligations under international law. The use of permit systems as de-facto authorisation regimes has had a particular influence on First Nations groups, with a First Nations group in the NT having been required to pay for their own traffic control in January 2024 as a precondition to obtaining authorisation from police to carry out protests when there are no recorded instances of other groups having to do so.
I am concerned about this increasing restriction on our democratic right to protest, particularly in a global context of threats to democracy. I would appreciate hearing about what measures you’re taking to ensure our right to protest is adequately protected.
Warm regards,
3. If you don’t get a response and have capacity, please call your MP to follow up.