Major Sydney protests to go ahead with increased police presence; Invasion Day rally paid tribute to Lake Cargelligo shooting victims
NSW Premier Chris Minns said he “won’t decide” when asked if he would prefer two protests planned for Australia Day in Sydney not take place.
“It is important that the exclusion zones established by the police minister are respected by protest organisers,” Minns said. “But there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen.”
“Violence or hate speech will not be tolerated on the streets of Sydney,” the Prime Minister said. “We live in a beautiful multicultural community… but we will not tolerate a situation where divisive language, hate speech or racism disrupts Australia’s national day.”
Minns said it’s important to distinguish between the Invasion Day march and protests related to international events. “Indigenous protests on Australia Day have been going on for decades,” he said. “There was an understanding from the organizers and the police that there was a need to facilitate.”
Minns also said he’s hopeful people respect and allow protests over First Nations sovereignty: “I hope people respect that, whether they do that or not is their business.”
“The organizers of this protest have made it clear that this is about Indigenous and Aboriginal sovereignty, as well as the circumstances surrounding 1788 and the arrival of Europe on our continent,” he said. “To have that usurped by international events or circumstances would be to challenge that, and those are not my words, those of the protest organizers.”
Minns said NSW residents could expect further changes to protest the laws. He said Australians had the right to protest but others also had the right to “enjoy the city”. [and be] free from trying to lead a protest every weekend.”
“My responsibility is to keep the people of NSW safe and balance those rights, and I don’t think we have that balance at the moment.”
The Prime Minister also said there remained scope for tightening hate speech laws in NSW regardless of federal law changes. He said US-style free speech laws were inappropriate for a “multicultural country” like Australia. “There needs to be recognition that you have different rules for the road.”
