David Dungay. Deaths in Custody campaign vows to defy Minns protest ban

Dunghutti man Paul Silva is urging supporters to join him in defying NSW’s new protest ban by going ahead with his pre-planned Deaths in Custody march tomorrow. Wendy Bacon reports.

The Dungay family has fought unsuccessfully for a decade to hold the NSW state government responsible for the murder of Dunghutti man David Dungay at Long Bay prison in December 2015.

Dungay was only 26 when he was killed at Long Bay Prison Hospital on December 29, 2025, and was due to be released soon. He was diabetic and was eating a packet of biscuits when he was attacked by six guards. They held him face down using force. He screamed “I can’t breathe” over and over until his heart stopped beating. Resuscitation was delayed and subsequently performed incorrectly.

618 locals were killed in custody

Since the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody (RCDIC) reported in 1991 on what was then called a ‘national disgrace’. NSW and other governments have failed to act on key recommendations.

Initially, the NSW Correctional Service found there was no need for an Inquiry into Dungay’s death. However, grieving mother Leetona Dungay and other family members protested in front of Long Bay prison. He vowed not to stop until his son’s killers were held accountable.

Months ago, Dungay’s nephew Paul Silva and other supporters decided that this year’s Jan. 18 rally would begin with a meeting in Hyde Park, followed by a march through the streets of Sydney.

Minns: Protests not allowed

But now Dungay’s family and other protesters against deaths in custody have been told their annual march is not allowed because of the anti-Semitic massacre in Bondi on December 14, when two men shot dead 15 people, almost all of them Jews.

NSW Premier Chris Minns almost immediately linked the horrific Bondi murders to pro-Palestinian protests. He provided no evidence for this claim. Australia’s leading Zionists have long called for pro-Palestinian protesters to be silenced. The Minns government recalled parliament in the early hours of December 24 to pass new anti-protest laws.

The new laws give police the power to restrict all protests for up to three months “following a declaration of terrorism”. Once a declaration has been made, protests on any issue cannot be permitted in designated areas (in this case, all of Sydney).

People can still gather for meetings, but police can issue a ‘no go ahead’ order if they decide it is ‘obstructing traffic or causing fear, harassment or intimidation’. Refusing the order could lead to arrest.

The effect of the laws is to override the ‘Form One’ system used to authorize protests, which protects people from arbitrary use of police powers. Organizers of Sunday’s march have applied for Form One approval for their rally and march.

Inhumane laws

On January 6, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon extended the initial protest ban for a further 14 days.

Silva promised the march and said it would not be stopped by “inhumane” laws.

The situation was designed to scare.

Protests still continue.

Herzog protest

On Friday evening, hundreds of protesters gathered in City Hall Square to call on the federal government to rescind Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s invitation to visit Australia in the coming weeks. More than a hundred police officers – three of them deep on the pavement – surrounded him, leaving passersby wondering if there was a security crisis.

Friday’s protest was steady and no arrests were made.

Peace protesters defy Minns ban: Friday

Deaths in custody

Greens Upper House MP Sue Higginson spoke at the protest and called on other protesters to join her in solidarity with the Death in Custody protesters on Sunday. “The best way to defend the right to protest is to protest,” he said.

To understand why Dungay felt compelled to walk, you need to understand her journey through the legal system with Dungay’s mother and aunt Leetona since 2015.

No one was held responsible for David’s death.

The investigation took four years to complete. Ultimately, the coroner found that the officers’ actions were due to inadequate training, but did not refer them for prosecution.

In 2020, leading criminal lawyer (recently appointed judge) Phillip Boulten The guards involved in the deaths were summoned He will be charged on the grounds that the force used “validates the investigation for the crime of intentional murder.”

In 2020, then-Greens NSW MP David Shoebridge introduced a petition signed by 15,000 people to Parliament, calling for further investigation. The NSW government found that the police had the authority to refer the matter for further investigation, but had not done so.

Assange’s lawyer handles case

in 2021 Leetona Dungay filed a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, claiming that Australia violated David Dungay’s right to life. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Australian government is not objecting to this case, which has not yet been concluded.

Human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson is representing Leeton and said: The issue of the Australian government’s failure to implement RCDIC recommendations was raised.

The Dungay campaign is driven by regular protests, which Silva argues are not just ‘political’ but also ‘political’.spiritual, cultural and survivalist’. He is a member of the Blak Group, whose campaigns are supported by experience. occupation, apartheid laws, stolen generations and a long tradition of protest dating back to the 1930s.

They argue that almost all gains, including Aboriginal health and legal services, have been achieved through protest.

Palestine Action

Blak Group It is part of a coalition of groups including. Palestine Action Group And Jews Against Occupation launched a challenge to the constitutionality of bans on authorized protests. His lawyers will claim new laws were violated The implied right to freedom of communication is part of Australian democracy.

Paddy Gibson, a researcher at the UTS Jumbunna Institute, has supported Dungay’s justice campaign for many years. He argues that rather than improving public safety, the new laws leave anyone who wants to protest, especially Aboriginal people, less safe. “The ‘go ahead’ power is part of the racist policing system we are protesting against in NSW.

“They are already used against Aboriginal people in NSW at a rate more than seven times that of non-Indigenous people,” he said.

Invasion Day, Australia Day

Thousands of people are usually expected to attend the annual Invasion Day march on January 26, but this too will be banned unless the ban on protests is lifted next week.

The Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT is also concerned. “Aboriginal people have resisted and protested colonization for over 200 years. Since Day of Mourning in 1938, 26 January has been observed as a day of protest and solidarity against the unjust dispossession of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” said Nadine Miles, chief legal officer of the ALS.

Justifying the second 14-day ban, NSW Acting Premier Ryan Park said it was “all about keeping the public safe”. Defending the legislation, Prime Minister Chris Minns described civil liberties concerns as “overblown”.

But as the Human Rights Law Center says, “Anti-protest laws do not prevent racism or keep communities safe; they do the opposite. We are now seeing the dangerous consequences of expanding police powers and restricting protest rights.”

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

Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who is Professor of Journalism at UTS. He has worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has written in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. It has a long history of promoting independent and alternative journalism.

He is a long-term supporter of peaceful BDS and the Greens.