Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Good morning and welcome to The Daily Oz. It's Tuesday the 21st of April. I'm Emma Gillespie. I'm Billie Fitzsimons. Australia's protest laws are being tested in multiple states. Over the weekend in Queensland, dozens of people were arrested in Brisbane after demonstrations opposing their state's new hate speech laws.
And just days earlier, a New South Wales court struck down protest restrictions introduced after the Bondi terror attack. Today, we are going to unpack what's going on in each state, where protest laws are at federally, and what it all means for your right to protest. But first, we're going to hear a quick message from TDA team member, Claudia.
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Chapter 2: What recent events have sparked protests in Queensland?
So what should we know about what happened in Queensland over the weekend?
So this year, the Queensland government introduced these new restrictions under hate speech laws, banning two phrases linked with the pro-Palestinian movement. Now, those phrases are globalise the intifada and and from the river to the sea.
So in February they introduced this ban which applies to the use or the display of those phrases to make a quote reasonable member of the public feel menaced, harassed or offended. Now this carries a maximum penalty of up to two years in jail
At the time, Queensland's police minister, Dan Purdy, said that the reform was in direct response to a specific attack on Jewish people in the wake of the Bondi terror attacks. And Purdy said Queenslanders expect to be able to practice their faith without fear.
And so Queensland introduced this law, which meant that they were the first state in Australia to specifically outlaw the phrases globalise the intifada and from the river to the sea. Do you want to just explain for those who aren't familiar with those phrases, why those two were singled out?
Well, I think it's helpful here to point to some findings from a bipartisan committee of New South Wales MPs, actually. So New South Wales is considering similar bans, but they filed a report in January recommending some reform. And it speaks to, I guess, the meaning or the perceived meaning of these phrases, specifically on Globalise the Intifada. Intifada is an Arabic word for uprising.
Now, the New South Wales Committee said that the term, quote, cannot be separated from its history of violence against Jewish people and inspires violence.
However, it did note multiple submissions from stakeholders who argued that the phrase globalise the intifada was, quote, commonly understood as a call for peaceful global solidarity and or opposition to Israel's violations of international law. Now, from the river to the sea is a phrase that refers to the Jordan River on Israel's eastern border and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.
Now, this bipartisan committee of New South Wales MPs didn't recommend banning it. So this committee determined that from the river to the sea didn't meet the same threshold as globalised the Intifada. According to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, the phrase, it argues, calls for the ethnic cleansing of Jews.
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Chapter 3: What are the new hate speech laws introduced in Queensland?
And then in February, you might remember some national headlines around protests over the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Ah, yes.
He was invited to Australia by the Prime Minister in the wake of the Bondi terror attack. There were significant demonstrations around the country, but in Sydney specifically, there was one in Town Hall at the CBD where where dozens of people were pepper sprayed, 27 people were arrested. There was a lot of viral footage of alleged police violence involving those arrests.
Ten people were charged and they are now before the courts.
Okay, so that brings us up to speed with what happened prior to last week. But then last week, the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled that those laws that the New South Wales government brought in were unconstitutional.
Yeah. So that raises significant questions about the people who were charged under those laws. Mm. So Palestine Action Group and Black Caucus, First Nations and pro-Palestinian advocacy groups brought this legal challenge against those laws introduced in December.
And Chief Justice Andrew Bell last Thursday found they were an impermissible burden, to use his language, on the implied constitutional freedom of of communication on government and political matters. So what that means is that Justice Andrew Bell said the Constitution does not permit the state to, quote, impose such a sweeping and indiscriminate restriction on all public assemblies.
Solicitor Nick Hanna, who represented the Palestine Action Group, is now calling on police to drop the charges against the 10 people who attended the pro-Palestinian rally in February at Town Hall and He said it's inevitable that these prosecutions will be unsuccessful given the law has been overturned.
And he also said people who were physically injured during those rallies could be owed compensation. So that adds another interesting layer to this ongoing issue.
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