{"id":777287,"date":"2026-07-03T22:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777287\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T22:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:05:12","slug":"entire-nsw-labor-left-calls-for-controversial-anti-protest-laws-to-be-scrapped-ahead-of-party-conference-new-south-wales-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777287\/","title":{"rendered":"Entire NSW Labor left calls for controversial anti-protest laws to be scrapped ahead of party conference | New South Wales politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifty-six Labor branches have passed motions to the New South Wales<\/a> state conference calling for controversial anti-protest legislation to be repealed or reviewed, with the entire left faction backing a motion for two of the laws to be scrapped.<\/p>\n

Gambling reform, Aukus and Palestine were also among the top issues in motions submitted by branches to the conference, the last before the March election and which is key in informing policy.<\/p>\n

But some Labor members are concerned that the rank and file will not be afforded the opportunity to debate the protest laws after the matter was scheduled second last on the agenda this weekend.<\/p>\n

In a press conference on Friday held by civil liberties groups, Labor party<\/a> member Asrah Sobh labelled it an attempt to \u201cshut down branch members\u2019 voices\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe single most submitted issue to state conference was in the social justice and affairs chapter, and that is the right to protest, that is the right to express ourselves in this democratic society,\u201d Sobh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris Minns is essentially not listening to his rank and file, which is not OK \u2026 because [the party] is the rank and file at the end of the day. The party is not one single man up at the top, and like all happy families, debate is an important part of how things work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The premier was approached for comment.<\/p>\n

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Minns will address the party faithful in a speech at Sydney\u2019s Town Hall on Saturday. In a move to appease unions, he is expected to announce a plan to bring train manufacturing back to the Hunter region.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor over 100 years, the best trains in the world were proudly made by union workers in NSW,\u201d he will tell delegates.<\/p>\n

The government has not specified a start date for the $12bn commitment in funding over 15 years, nor was it accounted for in last week\u2019s state budget<\/a>. It has identified two potential sites for a state-owned, privately operated facility in Teralba and Broadmeadow. Labor says the project would provide 780 jobs in site construction and 550 ongoing jobs in manufacturing.<\/p>\n

But the announcement will likely be overshadowed by the Labor left motion to repeal the 2022 anti-protest laws, which were passed by the then Coalition government and supported by Labor. The laws include penalties of up to two years in jail for blocking major facilities and have been used against climate protesters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is also calling for laws which restrict protests outside places of worship to be scrapped. The legislation was passed last year<\/a> after an earlier iteration of the Minns government\u2019s laws was found to be unconstitutional<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough purported to promote safety,\u201d the motion states in its preamble about the laws, \u201cthey have not delivered that outcome and have instead created conditions where tension and violence at protests are more likely to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n

It says \u201cNSW witnessed disturbing scenes<\/a>\u201d at the 9 February rally against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog.<\/p>\n

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Legal Observers NSW, an independent group which observes protests, released a report<\/a> about the protest on Friday, finding after reviewing 150 videos from the rally and collecting numerous witness statements that there was a \u201ccollective and systemic police escalation\u201d.<\/p>\n

There will be no debate over the state\u2019s position on the \u201cAustralia and the World\u201d committee report after it was referred to the party\u2019s national conference.<\/p>\n

Labor Friends of Palestine and Labor Against War have written a letter to the party\u2019s NSW general secretary, Dominic Ofner, seen by Guardian Australia, calling for a debate to go ahead. The group said a debate was a \u201cclear priority for the party rank and file\u201d and that sections of the report were at odds with motions passed by branches.<\/p>\n

The report includes a lengthy endorsement of Aukus<\/a>, despite \u201cnot a single\u201d branch motion supporting that view, the groups wrote in their letter.<\/p>\n

They also argued that \u201cthe preamble suggests that there are \u2018a range of perspectives\u2019 in motions addressing the issue of Palestine\u201d, but this was \u201csimply untrue\u201d given the 14 party units which submitted motions were \u201cunanimous\u201d in their condemnation of the ongoing violence.<\/p>\n

Darcy Byrne, the mayor of Sydney\u2019s Inner West council, and the delegate representing the electorate of Grayndler at the state Labor conference, has written<\/a> that the conference is a critical moment to act on harm from poker machines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, the private interests of the poker machine lobby have trumped the public interest of preventing addiction and harm,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at this conference, for our party, this is a crisis that can no longer be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifty-six Labor branches have passed motions to the New South Wales state conference calling for controversial anti-protest legislation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-777287","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\/777287","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=777287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}