Constitutional Cons
Our Right to Public Assembly is Still Protected
Not only are we under political attack due to our choice of music genre, but we are also led to believe we could also face up to 7 years' jail for democratic protests. Hence, for the sake of everbody's legal protection, we have chosen to stage our initial protest online.
The idea originates from the world’s first and very clever 'political protest by hologram' which took place in Madrid last year in response to Spain’s conservative government introducing laws 'to curb public protests and squelch social activism'.
Irrespective of our new penalties aimed at jailing Knitting Nannas, there is no Consitutional reason we can't hold a public assembly. States and territories across Australia have either a “permit” or “notice” procedure for holding protests, however police do not issue “permits” for protests and have no powers to demand “conditions” even though they pretend they do.
The process is simply a notification and if the police truly disagree with a protest going ahead, they may seek a “prohibition” order from the Supreme Court. This is an expensive procedure and is very rarely used or won.
Just as a matter of interest, the new penalties have not changed anything other than (presumably) preventing people from harming themselves. The NSW LAW ENFORCEMENT (POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES) ACT 2002, part 14 specifically places a limitation on 'directions' a police officer can give to a group that can be recognised as "an apparently genuine demonstration or protest".
In short, an officer CAN NOT direct a peaceful crowd of people that are obviously protesting as they could an ordinary citizen. Providing that the protest stays peaceful and law-abiding, the NSW Police have no authority to control or direct such a gathering.
Hence, we have not ruled out the staging of demonstrations in each State. We are simply collating and measuring the interest levels of the community in order to notify Police of the correct numbers that may attend various public assemblies if/when we do.
