ABC News <\/a>website.<\/p>\n10m agoTue 6 Jan 2026 at 6:26am<\/p>\n
Will Australia Day rallies go ahead?<\/p>\n
The restrictions will be in place until 3pm January 20, but the commissioner can extend it again for another 14 days.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Lanyon said he is not yet considering whether Australia Day rallies will be banned if the restrictions are extended again.<\/p>\n
“In the current environment we will look at the behaviour over the next 14 days,” he said.<\/p>\n
“And we’ll certainly look at where we are with the community.<\/p>\n
“Again, this is about time and respect. We will consider all those factors. It’s very premature to talk about what might happen after these 14 days.”<\/p>\n
24m agoTue 6 Jan 2026 at 6:12am<\/p>\n
Community ‘has felt fear’ about public assemblies<\/p>\n
Commissioner Lanyon is again defending his decision, repeating an earlier comment that the decision was about not thwarting free speech.<\/p>\n
“We’re only several weeks out from what is one of the most significant terrorist incidents in Australia, certainly in New South Wales,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think the community, quite rightly, over a period of time, has felt fear and have been concerned, particularly about some of the very public displays in their public assemblies.<\/p>\n
“These declarations are about saying now is the time for calm.”<\/p>\n
Show more<\/p>\n
“I have decided that the holding of public assemblies for the next 14 days has the potential to cause fear and public safety issues,” he said of his decision on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said no Form 1 submissions will be accepted during this period.<\/p>\n
“I ask for people to show respect. I ask for people to show courtesy, but most of all I ask that people remain peaceful,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new laws were put in place in the wake of the Bondi terror attack on December 14.<\/p>\n
Under the restrictions, gatherings are still permitted but police can issue move-on directions for people causing “obstructions”, “behaving in an intimidatory or harassing manner”, or those who are “likely to cause fear in another person”.<\/p>\n
Individuals who participate in public assembly will not have certain protections in relation to obstructing traffic and pedestrians, and are at risk of committing an offence during the duration of the restrictions.<\/p>\n
Police have also been granted powers to require the removal of face coverings, for identification purposes, if they suspect an offence is being committed.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Lanyon maintained the decision was “not about stopping free speech” but ensuring the community would feel safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re only several weeks out from what is one of the most significant terrorist incidents in Australia, certainly in New South Wales,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think the community, quite rightly, over a period of time, has felt fear and have been concerned, particularly about some of the very public displays in their public assemblies.”<\/p>\n
Commissioner Lanyon said public assemblies were not banned and that people planning to protest peacefully “have nothing to fear”.<\/p>\n
“If there was someone who wanted to have a peaceful assembly at the moment, this legislation does not prohibit that,” Commissioner Lanyon said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The legislation does not prohibit assemblies but this is about saying to the broader community this is not the time for division. This is a time for peace and respect.”<\/p>\n
The declaration can be extended fortnightly for up to three months and was due to expire tomorrow. The authorisation will be evaluated again in 14 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW police commissioner will extend temporary protest restrictions across three Sydney metropolitan policing areas for another two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6879,85,46,122465,43,112650,122466,112649],"class_list":["post-222998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-chris-minns","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mal-lanyon","tag-news","tag-nsw-parliament","tag-nsw-police-commissioner","tag-protest-laws"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}