{"id":615475,"date":"2026-04-18T17:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615475\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T17:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:25:11","slug":"nsw-should-think-twice-before-banning-globalise-the-intifada-after-court-struck-down-anti-protest-law-legal-expert-says-new-south-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/615475\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW should think twice before banning \u2018globalise the intifada\u2019 after court struck down anti-protest law, legal expert says | New South Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minns government should think twice before imposing an outright ban on the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d<\/a> in the wake of a landmark finding that could limit attempts to control speech and protests, a leading constitutional expert has said.<\/p>\n

New South Wales\u2019 highest court ruled in favour of the Palestine Action Group and Blak Caucus on Thursday, striking down an anti-protest law introduced after the Bondi beach terror attack<\/a> that gave police the power to restrict marches, including the anti-Herzog rally in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The full bench of the court of appeal \u2013 which included chief justice Andrew Bell, and justices Julie Ward and Stephen Free \u2013 found discouraging all protests in order to protect social cohesion impermissibly burdened the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication.<\/p>\n

The justices wrote that the notion that the community can and should be protected from political expression by others because it might be \u201cupsetting, inflammatory and divisive\u201d wasn\u2019t legitimate under the constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppressing public debate of certain kinds may be a means to a legitimate end, but it cannot be a legitimate end in itself,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

In January, a NSW parliamentary inquiry recommended banning the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d<\/a>, but only when it is used to incite hatred, harassment, intimidation or violence. It stopped short of calling for an unqualified ban or a ban on phrases such as \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d. Chris Minns\u2019 office confirmed on Friday he still planned to outlaw the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d, depending on how Queensland\u2019s ban on the phrase, introduced earlier this year, played out.<\/p>\n

Anne Twomey, a constitutional expert at the University of Sydney<\/a>, said if she were the Minns government, \u201chaving read this judgment, I would be very, very reluctant to go ahead with legislation banning certain slogans\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the judgment may also make it easier to challenge Queensland\u2019s ban on the phrases<\/a> \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d and \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d, even though the ban was in a different jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Twomey said the judgment likely meant any future attempts by the NSW government to stymie speech or protest for similar reasons, including banning slogans, \u201cis not going to wash with this court\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that will certainly have flow-on effects for attempts to ban political slogans and also attempts to do more regulation of political protests, unless [the government] does it for a purpose of actually protecting from violence or protecting the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After Thursday\u2019s judgment, Twomey said any slogan ban should be directed at stemming risks of violence, and not merely because it causes distress or offence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf what the government is trying to do is just to stop people being upset, or some sort of vague notion of social coherence, then under this judgment, that\u2019s just not going to be sufficient to justify the law,\u201d Twomey said.<\/p>\n

Findings impact on anti-Herzog protesters<\/p>\n

The now-struck-down law prevented the use of the state\u2019s permit-style system that protects protesters from being charged by NSW police when marching.<\/p>\n

It was in place in parts of Sydney\u2019s CBD during the rally against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog\u2019s visit in early February, which turned violent and triggered a police watchdog investigation into allegations of widespread police misconduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s finding has raised questions over what this could mean for the 26 protesters who have so far been charged with various offences, including assaulting police, resisting arrest, and using offensive language.<\/p>\n

Majed Kheir, one of the solicitors representing the protesters, who is celebrating the win as one of the greatest victories for civil liberties in Australian history, said it was possible the lawyers may now make an application for police to withdraw the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s open to a court to interpret, but it may mean that police on the night were acting beyond the scope of their duties and their powers, because, in accordance with today\u2019s judgment, those powers were unconstitutional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [criminal defence lawyer] Nick Hanna said it outside court, and I certainly agree, it is one of the biggest wins for civil rights and civil liberties in Australian history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Palestine Action Group celebrates after NSW supreme court strikes down anti-protest law \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Police can withdraw the charges of their own accord. In response to a question from Guardian Australia, a NSW police spokesperson said the force was working through the judgment.<\/p>\n

Sam Lee, a supervising solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, said the question of whether the judgment would impact the charges was not straightforward. This is due to a number of people not facing summary offences charges, which protesters would have potentially been protected from had the Pard not been in place.<\/p>\n

Another complicating factor was that the area was placed under a major events declaration for the duration of Herzog\u2019s visit, giving police expanded move-on and stop-and-search powers.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Withdrawing charges] could be based on a case-by-case basis, depending on what powers they were charged under,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

Still, Lee said the judgment was likely to have far-reaching consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it puts brakes on the Minns government\u2019s ability to use executive power to minimise people\u2019s rights to protest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minns government should think twice before imposing an outright ban on the phrase \u201cglobalise the intifada\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-615475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615475","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=615475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}