NSW passes protest ban, Premier ducks questions on armed CSG on Sydney streets

While the Prime Minister has given sweeping powers to crack down on protests in the wake of the Bondi massacre, the Minns government is refusing to answer questions about the arming of Mossad-linked security guards on Sydney’s streets. Stephanie Tran reports.

Draft Law on Amendments to Terrorism and Other Legislation 2025 – combining draconian restrictions on public gatherings with gun law reforms – was passed at 3am last night after the NSW Parliament was recalled for an emergency session.

The first consultation draft was distributed to members at noon on Sunday. The final bill was introduced less than an hour before it was read in parliament on Monday.

Police have power to ban peaceful political gatherings

At the heart of the legislation is a new power that allows police to ban protests and other public gatherings for up to three months after a declared ‘terrorist incident’.

The bill creates a mechanism known as a Declaration to Restrict Public Gatherings (PARD), which can be issued by the NSW police commissioner or a deputy commissioner, with the approval of the policing minister, within 14 days of a terrorist incident being declared.

Once a PARD is in place, protests and other public gatherings in designated areas cannot be permitted under NSW’s long-standing “Form 1” system, designed to facilitate co-operation between police and protest organizers and protect participants from prosecution for obstruction offences.

The police will have the authority to direct protests to disperse and prevent new gatherings from forming, even in cases where no illegal behavior has occurred.

PARD can be extended in consecutive 14-day blocks,

for a cumulative maximum of 90 days. While industrial action is expressly exempt, the power applies to all other forms of political assembly.

Under the bill, attendees of a meeting held in a PARD-designated area would lose the legal protections normally afforded to permitted protests and could be subject to criminal liability for obstruction and related offenses. Police powers of action, normally restricted during authorized assemblies, can also be used to force protesters to disperse.

The legislation also expands police powers, requiring police to remove face masks from protesters if they reasonably suspect the person has committed or is likely to commit a crime.

Minns leaves unanswered questions about arming CSG

These measures are Minns’ being discussed with the Community Security Group (CSG), a Jewish security group with ties to the Mossad, over allowing its members to openly carry guns at events.

David Ossip, Chairman of the Jewish Board of Deputies, is the sole director of Paliguard Pty Ltd, the company that operates CSG.

ossip publicly condemned Sydney Harbor Bridge walk and welcomed protest ban.

“Public protest cannot be a license to threaten or terrorize minority communities,” he said.

A former CSG member interviewed with Deepcut News He stated that the organization has long functioned as an unofficial recruitment channel for Israeli intelligence agencies, describing it as an “open two-way line of communication”.

“CSG has a long history as a recruiting ground for Israeli intelligence agencies,” the former member said.

MWM In a statement to the National Press Club by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Palestine and Israeli commissioner Chris Sidoti, in light of the commission’s finding that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, “anyone who served in any branch of the Israeli army in Gaza should be treated as a suspect, investigated and, if necessary, prosecuted.”

The prime minister’s office did not respond.

‘Totally ban’ meetings

Introducing the bill, NSW police and counter-terrorism minister Yasmin Catley said the government’s position was that police needed the power to ban gatherings outright following a terrorist attack.

“We say the critical power in the wake of a terrorist incident is the ability to completely ban any public gatherings to ensure public safety,” Catley told parliament.

He argued that large public gatherings following an attack could increase tensions in the community, expose participants to risk, impede emergency responses and become targets themselves.

“A public meeting held to express support for or condemn a particular community or group can further escalate tensions and lead to risks to public safety,” he said.

Coalition wants tougher penalties

Despite the breadth of the new powers, the opposition argued they did not go far enough.

The Liberals have proposed a series of changes that would introduce clear criminal offenses for organizing or participating in a protest during a lockdown period, mandatory fines for participants, prison sentences of up to five years for organisers, stricter mask bans and legal approval criteria emphasizing “social cohesion” and economic impacts.

Shadow Attorney General Alister Henskens warned that protests could resume immediately without tougher penalties.

“If this bill passes parliament today and tomorrow, there will be nothing to stop a pro-Hamas protest or meeting at Bondi Beach at the weekend,” he said.

According to the opposition’s proposal,

organizers face up to five years in prison,

participants were automatically fined $1,000. All opposition amendments were rejected in the lower house.

Blames peace protesters

The new laws come as Prime Minister Chris Minns has made repeated statements linking pro-Palestinian protests with social division and violence in the wake of the Bondi attack.

Minns suggested that phrases like “globalizing the intifada” could be targeted in the future hate speech reforms.

AAP journalist Farid Farid asked Minns. to clarify what he meant when he described “images of violence” at the protests.

“I mean, the violent images that I’m talking about are things that I saw in Hyde Park. They have consequences in our society. I won’t go into the details of it, but it has an impact,” Minns responded.

Opposition leader Kellie Sloan went further in parliament, directly linking the weekly Gaza protests to the attack.

“We should have realized this then, when protesters were allowed to pour into our city every week and shout, ‘From river to sea,’ ‘Globalize the intifada,'” he said. “When hate is normalized in a country, how can we believe there will be anything other than what we saw last Sunday?”

‘Politicization of suffering’

Critics say the government is conflating peaceful protests with terrorism and using the moment of national suffering to crack down on democratic rights.

University of Sydney academic Dr. “The top priority for the Premier of NSW in responding to the Bondi massacre was to ensure that there were no peace marches, or any marches for that matter, in Sydney, at least for now,” Nick Reimer said. wrote MWM.

“Their suggestions will make our blood run cold.”

Greens MP Jenny Leong said it was “really worrying” to conflate gun reforms with protest restrictions and conflate peaceful protests with a terrorist attack.

“It is disappointing that the New South Wales Labor government has chosen to lump all reforms together. This is not in the interests of our democracy or society and will not help heal the pain and fractures in our communities,” he said.

“Peace comes with the protection and promotion of all people’s civil liberties and human rights. The removal of people’s collective right to engage in non-violent, peaceful protest in the state of New South Wales is a very disappointing use of this tragic event.”

Leong condemned attempts to blame the Bondi attack on Sydneysiders protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.

“It is important to call out those who seek to blame Sydneysiders who participated in peaceful protests against genocide for the disgusting antisemitic actions of the two violent, mass-murdering men in Bondi,” he said.

Australian Jewish Council director Dr. Naama Blatman in the name He called on the government “not to politicize our grief.”

“We call on the Minns government and members of the NSW parliament not to politicize our pain, not to profit from our tragedy, not to pass laws that stifle our freedoms and punish us for our commitment to justice,” he said.

Minns’ protest ban: breathtakingly racist, authoritarian and must be opposed