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A joint statement from the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Human Rights Law Centre and Australian Democracy Network say they are “deeply concerned” about the “heavy-handed police repression of a peaceful protest” at Port Botany last night.
The statement said the protest of 400 people included children and elderly people. It claims protesters were not allowed to march on the road, instead moved to a roadside path, and that no vehicles attempted to enter via the road during this time.
When the protest paused near this driveway and protestors were peacefully sitting on the ground, police issued move on orders and began arresting attendees. Legal observers and others on the scene did not witness a reason being given for the move on orders.
The statement says the groups are concerned that police issued move on orders and arrested individuals for allegedly failing to comply “when no serious risk to safety was present and no traffic was observed to be obstructed”.
Mounted police advanced on the crowd in a way that resulted in a crowd crush, with several protestors having to climb over a fence to avoid being trampled by police horses.
Police also physically pushed several independent legal observers and obstructed their capacity to observe.
Lydia Shelly, President of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said:
The right to protest needs to be protected, even if protests are considered disruptive, controversial or inconvenient … The anti protest laws must be repealed if NSW is to be an open and free state.
NSW premier Chris Minns earlier rejected claims that police were heavy-handed in the way they arrested protesters. NSW Police have been contacted for comment.
14m ago18.46 ESTAmanda Meade
Lehrmann defamation proceedings against Network Ten will be live-streamed
The federal court has rejected Network Ten’s submission to not live-stream the defamation proceedings brought against it by former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann.
Justice Michael Lee said:
Despite these arguments, I’ve reached the clear view that the administration of justice is best served and facilitated by the court adopting the now common course of live streaming the hearing of this case and rejecting Network Ten’s proposed alternative orders.
Lee said he made his decision because “open justice should not yield to the hypothetical risk of abuse by bad actors”.
The appropriate live streaming of the proceedings of public importance facilitates open justice in the modern…
2023-11-21 18:46:34
Link from www.theguardian.com
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