LAST week two women from the flood and fire-impacted NSW Mid North Coast launched a Constitutional challenge to new anti-protest laws to preserve democratic freedoms of speech and assembly in NSW.

Plaintiffs Dominique and Helen will argue that to uphold our Constitution, the NSW Government must allow communities to peacefully protest against government policy in public spaces.

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Following highly publicised protests in Sydney earlier this year, the NSW Government ushered through amendments to the Road Amendment (Major Bridges and Tunnels) Regulation 2022 and introduced the Roads and Crimes Legislation Amendment Act 2022 to parliament without public consultation.

The new laws are so broad that a group of people could face serious criminal charges simply by protesting near a railway station and causing people to be redirected around them; meaning peaceful protesters could be fined up to $22,000 or face up to two years in jail.

Representing Dominique and Helen, the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) has launched a Constitutional challenge to section 214A of the Crimes Act 1900 that makes it an offence, for example, to remain ‘near’ any part of a ‘major facility’ if that conduct ‘causes persons attempting to use the major facility to be redirected’, on the basis it impermissibly burdens the implied freedom of political communication.

Dominique and Helen will also ask the Court to find that the definition of “major bridge, tunnel or road” is too broad.

Plaintiff, Knitting Nanna, mother and wildlife carer Dominique said, “As mothers, wildlife carers and Knitting Nannas who use our freedom to protest to push for climate action while floods and bushfires destroy our communities around us, this attack on our democratic freedoms is a slap in the face.

“We will ask the Court to find that aspects of these new laws are unconstitutional.

“Australians like us shouldn’t have to risk imprisonment or bankruptcy to participate in our democracy, and the Government should not be taking away our democratic rights.”

Co-plaintiff Helen said, “As Knitting Nannas, we believe well-behaved women never make history.

“Women didn’t get the vote by asking nicely, they had to take bold action to demand their rights.

“We need to defend our freedom to protest as once it has been eroded, it is gone forever. “There’s a long, proud history of peaceful protests in Australia, and our democratic freedoms are critical in pushing the Government to do the right thing and take climate action seriously.”

Both Dominique and Helen have been at the frontline of Australian climate impacts, experiencing the devastation, trauma and loss from drought, fires and floods in the last four years alone.

Dominique said, “In the 2019 drought, the river we live on stopped flowing – I didn’t think we would ever see that, it was devastating.

“My mother and father-in-law lost their home in the floods and were rescued from their house by the SES.

“Our communities have felt terrified, angry and stressed.

“Protest can transform those overwhelming feelings into change and action.”

Helen said, “In 2021, I helped my daughter buy a house, but it was flooded on the first night she moved in.

“It had supposedly not flooded for 100 years.

“I also know people who lost family members from the fires.

“As a psychologist, I have seen first-hand the trauma of climate impacts on people, year after year.

“We’ve tried everything from sending letters and signing petitions to meeting politicians, and still, the Government continues to dismiss climate science and approve new coal and gas projects.

“Coal and gas projects that fuel the climate crisis and devastate Australian communities with catastrophic floods and bushfires are the true disruptors of our way of life, not individuals exercising their democratic freedoms and taking part in peaceful protest.”

Environmental Defenders Office CEO David Morris said, “History has shown that protest is crucial in a robust democracy and contributes towards achieving better outcomes for people, nature and our climate.

“Australians shouldn’t have to risk these serious criminal sanctions to participate in our shared democracy, through peaceful protest.

“Those without access to political power and decision-making must have a voice in our democracy.

“For people like Dominique and Helen, protest is an essential form of expression to sound the alarm about the impacts of climate change.

“If successful, this case will aid in the preservation of our democracy.

“It will see the worst excesses of these new laws struck out.

“It will provide clarity for all NSW citizens seeking to avail themselves of the democratic freedom to protest.”

Background

Following highly publicised protests in Sydney earlier this year, the NSW Government ushered through amendments to the Road Amendment (Major Bridges and Tunnels) Regulation 2022 and introduced the Roads and Crimes Legislation Amendment Act 2022 to parliament without public consultation.