Email NSW MPs: Protect democracy - don't ban protests!

image of Email NSW MPs: Protect democracy - don't ban protests!

In an attempt to exploit the horrific trauma produced by the recent mass shooting that devastated the Jewish community in Bondi, the state NSW premier, Chris Minns, announced that Labor would move to effectively ban protests under certain conditions which gives police expanded “special powers”.

A New South Wales government plan to restrict protests in the wake of the Bondi beach attack has been condemned by anti-Zionist Jewish organisations who are vocal supporters of the Palestine movement and in opposition to the Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns in Gaza.

This campaign is coordinated by Palestine Justice Movement Sydney in the interests of everyone who has ever felt the need to protest - a fundamental democratic right.

In an attempt to exploit the horrific trauma produced by the recent mass shooting that devastated the Jewish community in Bondi, the state NSW premier, Chris Minns, announced that Labor would move to effectively ban protests under certain conditions which gives police expanded “special powers”.

A New South Wales government plan to restrict protests in the wake of the Bondi beach attack has been condemned by anti-Zionist Jewish organisations who are vocal supporters of the Palestine movement and in opposition to the Israeli genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns in Gaza.

This campaign is coordinated by Palestine Justice Movement Sydney in the interests of everyone who has ever felt the need to protest - a fundamental democratic right.

Letter to NSW MPs demanding their opposition to the premier's proposed protest restrictions

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Please send this urgent email to NSW MPs to oppose the restrictions on protest that the government is planning

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Subject:

Dear Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly,

I am writing to express my profound opposition to the restrictions on protest that the government is reported to be planning.

I share the universal horror at the monstrous attacks on innocent people at Bondi. The crimes of December 14 must never happen again. Those responsible must be punished with the full force of the law.

The situation we are in following the attack is a test of your and your colleagues’ commitment to democracy. Demonstrations and marches are not an optional extra in a democracy: a state that bans protest, even temporarily, suspends its democratic character. The proposal to do so is deeply alarming and should send shivers down our spine.

The Bondi attack must not be used as a pretext for suppressing the right of people in NSW to express their opinions publicly and collectively. Restricting this fundamental democratic right is a hallmark of far-right states like Orbán’s Hungary or Milei’s Argentina. I urge you not to imitate them.

In Sydney, protests regularly occur for Indigenous rights, against sexual violence and for the rights of women and of the LGBTQ community, as well as for a range of global justice issues, including Palestine. These protests have been peaceful without exception. They are a credit to our democracy, essential expressions of deeply-felt sentiments, and models of the harmony in our diverse community that the government claims to promote. To people without other means of making their views widely known, peaceful demonstrations are vital. Obstructing them does nothing to support community cohesion: on the contrary, it erodes it.

Restrictions on civil liberties in NSW have already gone too far. The allegation that August’s March for Humanity over the Harbour Bridge contributed to the Bondi shooting is an outrageous insult to the up to 300 000 people, including many MPs and distinguished community figures, who took part in it. Do not reward this reprehensible slander.

A time like this tests commitment to democracy. I am counting on you not to fail us, or the democratic values that we should hold dear.

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