National Day of Protest Rights

On 3 July, we marked the first National Day of Protest Rights with an event hosted by Senator David Pocock at Australian Parliament House. Along with our partners in this campaign, we launched three tools for protest advocacy:

• Power of Protest graphic stories series by community activists created by Amnesty International Australia

• The Protest in Peril report on the last twenty years of protest restrictions in Australia by Human Rights Law Centre

• The Declaration of Our Right to Protest – a collection of standards that all government agencies should uphold, now endorsed by over 150 community organisations.

Twenty community organisations and many individuals joined the social media conversation about why we need to #ProtectProtest. Look through the hashtag on X for inspiring stories of why protest matters from organisations like the Australian Council of Social Service, Community Legal Centres Australia, and The Australia Institute. Senator Lidia Thorpe also acknowledged the National Day of Protest Rights in the Senate.

Community review of NSW anti-protest laws

After pressure from over 40 unions and community groups, the NSW opened the legislative review of the 2022 anti-protest laws to community consultation. Over 1,400 community submissions were made to the review, with all but one calling for a repeal of the laws. Twenty organisations also made submissions calling for repeal, including Unions NSW, Community Legal Centres NSW and Australian Services Union NSW ACT Services Branch.

Although the review concluded that the laws remained appropriate, it also recommended that a cross-government working group consider the issues raised in the submissions that fell outside the scope of the review, including introducing dedicated legislation that expressly provides for the right to freedom of public assembly.

Community mobilisation against DLF repression

Over 30,000 people signed an open letter calling for an independent inquiry into policing at the Land Forces arms expo in Melbourne and accountability measures regarding the use of repressive police tactics at this protest. Thirty seven organisations joined ADN in calling on the Victorian government to ban dangerous police weapons at protests after over 100 people were injured by police at Disrupt Land Forces (DLF).

NSW Police withdraw attempt to restrict pro-Palestine rallies after civil society pressure

The NSW Police sought to oppose a Palestine rally in the Supreme Court on October 4, citing safety concerns around crowd management. ADN organised a joint letter from over 50 community groups to the NSW Police Commissioner calling on her to drop the case, with our Protest Rights Campaigner appearing on ABC Radio and in The Guardian. We also engaged the Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney to come out against the police case and encouraged civil liberties groups to highlight the problems with the NSW permit regime. The police withdrew the case on the day of the hearing, having reached an agreement on safety measures with rally organisers.

Over 90 organisations call for anti-SLAPP safeguards

In October, 94 community, union and legal organisations wrote to the Federal Attorney General calling for the introduction of laws to protect communities from bad-faith corporate litigation designed to shut down dissent (SLAPPs). UK, US and EU jurisdictions have protections against the misuse of the legal system by corporations and the open letter was the first step in an Australian campaign to secure the same protections locally. The Human Rights Law Centre published a report on strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs) in December and the campaign continues.