{"id":369349,"date":"2025-12-24T18:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T18:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369349\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T18:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T18:33:13","slug":"nsw-premier-says-police-commissioner-to-decide-when-to-use-states-new-protest-ban-powers-new-south-wales-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369349\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW premier says police commissioner to decide when to use state\u2019s new protest ban powers | New South Wales politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has said it is up to the state\u2019s police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, when to activate controversial new powers to ban protests<\/a> \u2013 although he made it clear he would like them triggered quickly.<\/p>\n

The new laws, were assented to on Wednesday after being passed in a late-night sitting of the NSW upper house and affirmed on Wednesday morning by the lower house.<\/p>\n

Introduced in response to the Bondi beach terror attack<\/a>, the laws give police powers to ban protests for up to three months after a terrorist event. The laws also include enhanced controls on gun ownership, including limits on the number of guns a person can own, a ban on rapid fire guns and prevent appeals when a licence is refused by police.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

The limit of four guns for recreational shooters and 10 for professional shooters and farmers will apply to new purchases as of Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The premier said gun owners who already own more than the new limits will have a short time to comply. The NSW government is planning a buy-back scheme similar to one rolled out after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. The details have not yet been announced but it will be jointly funded by the federal and state governments.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has asked the NSW police commissioner when he intends to activate a ban on protests in the state.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, three groups who regularly organise demonstrations in Sydney<\/a> said they intended to launch legal action challenging the laws on free speech grounds as soon as they were passed, although none of the groups had plans for any immediate protests.<\/p>\n

Minns says activating the ban is necessary, saying he wants \u201cto make sure we\u2019re in a position to keep the people of New South Wales<\/a> safe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t resile from the fact at all that in these circumstances of heightened tensions, words can lead to actions,\u201d Minns said. \u201cAnd I think the vast majority of Australians that live in NSW support us in relation to these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he wanted healing and that had been the message behind his visit to a mosque in Rockdale in Sydney on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It was] an opportunity to send a really clear and unambiguous message that an attack on a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, or anyone who doesn\u2019t have a religion at all, is an attack on all of us, and we cannot tolerate it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese laws are in place to keep and protect everyone and that\u2019s got to be the message here. We\u2019ve got to come together. As difficult as it is, as many disagreements as we have, our only real prospect of getting through this in the long run as Australians is to pull together.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also foreshadowed more legislation when parliament returns on 3 February to deal with hate speech and symbols including chants at protests that he considers objectionable, such as \u201cglobalise the intifada<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

An amendment to the bill, moved by the Greens, requires a firearms holder be a person who, to the knowledge of commissioner of police, has never been investigated by a commonwealth or state law enforcement or intelligence agency for terrorism-related offences or for association with members of a prescribed terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n

\"PMPM says he ‘regrets the politicisation’ of Bondi beach terror attack \u2013 video<\/p>\n

The amendment also states that a gun licence should not be granted to a person who lives with a person who has been investigated for terrorism related offences.<\/p>\n

One of the alleged Bondi gunmen, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, came to the attention of Asio<\/a> in 2019 and lived at the same address in Bonnyrigg as his father, Sajid Akram, the other alleged gunman, who was killed at the scene.<\/p>\n

Despite moving the amendment, the Greens abstained from supporting the final bill because of the anti-protest powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cA healthy democracy does not crack down on peaceful protest,\u201d Greens MP Jenny Leong said.<\/p>\n

The bill passed with the support of Labor and the Liberals, but was opposed by the Nationals and the Shooters Fishers and Farmers party.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, whose seat includes Bondi beach, said: \u201cThe NSW Liberals supported the passage of this bill because community safety must always come first, and the parliament has a responsibility to act in the wake of such a serious and confronting terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

She reiterated her criticism of the rushed process.<\/p>\n

The Premier also told NSW to expect enhanced security on Sydney streets during the Christmas and New Year break.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can expect police to have a bigger presence and also to have the weapons in place that they deem appropriate to keep the people of the state safe,\u201d Minns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat might be not what you\u2019d commonly see with police officers in the street, but they\u2019ll respond to the challenges that they have and they\u2019ll respond to the assessment that they make. And we\u2019re not going to make any apologies for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has said it is up to the state\u2019s police commissioner, Mal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-369349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}