They are at it again. Labor in the State Parliament and Liberals in the Brisbane City Council (BCC) are both trying to turn the clock back by 40 years where ordinary people did not have the right to march and assemble in Queensland.
Fortuneately the court upheld the laws that 3,000 people fought for and allowed today’s march for democratic rights.
But council and parliament will not give up. Already BCC have commercialised the spaces where people could demonstrate – Roma Street Forum, King George Square and Queens Park.
People met at 8am Wed 28 Aug 2019 at the corner of Queen St and Edward St, and marched to Parliament House arriving 8:45am and police could not stop them.
The LNP Lord Mayor took Jono Sri to court yesterday morning to try to prevent organising a peaceful protest march tomorrow.
And guess what?
We won!
Just because Labor and the LNP don’t like a peaceful protest doesn’t mean they should be able to stop it going ahead.
For the record, I made a repeated compromise offer to council to march up Queen St Mall rather than blocking Edward St, and the council refused.
We also offered to leave the bus lanes open and BCC refused that too.
But the court found in our favour so the rally is going ahead.
Meet at 8am at the corner of Queen St and Edward St, wrapping up outside Parliament House by 8:45am.
Let’s tell the State Government that they must not water down our right to peaceful protest!
Jonathan Sri, Councillor for The Gabba
Anti-protest laws
Last Tuesday the Premier kicked off the week in Parliament by announcing her government’s plans to introduce new anti-protest laws. The laws would create new offences and extend police powers to “prevent disruption”, seriously infringing on our civil liberties and rights to peaceful protest and political expression.
The Premier said in Parliament that peaceful protesters are using dangerous, booby-trapped tools, and that’s why we need these new laws. I was really concerned when I heard this – as anyone would be. But actually, we learnt later in the day that there’s absolutely no evidence to support the Premier’s claims. We already have laws prohibiting “man traps”, and Police have never charged a climate change protester in Queensland for using one, or intending to cause injury to others. Following these revelations, I wrote to the Police Commissioner requesting an urgent briefing, and on Thursday night I addressed the Chamber about these anti-democratic new laws.
“Peaceful protesters, calling for action on the greatest threat that has ever faced civilisation, are not “extremists”. Governments with their heads in the sand and their hands in the pockets of climate criminals are the real extremists here.”
The cherry on top came yesterday, when the Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner asked Premier Palaszczuk to scrap mandated mediation sessions between councils and protest groups. That means Councils could refuse to approve perfectly legal public events, rallies or demonstrations willy nilly, with no requirement to hold and complete a mediation process before applying to the courts to stop them going ahead.
These laws are not in line with community expectations. We know they’re designed to silence dissent and distract from the LNP and Labor’s hypocrisy on climate change. If they’re introduced via legislation in Parliament later this year, I will be opposing them at every step of the way. But I’m hoping it doesn’t even come to that.
If we don’t stand up to these types of Draconian laws now, politicians might start to think this kind of thing is ok – and we’ll find ourselves on a seriously slippery slope. So tomorrow morning, a rally is planned in the Brisbane CBD to let them know that we’re not going to let them drag us back into the Bjelke-Petersen days. Now, the Mayor is taking Greens Cr Jonathan Sri to court to try to stop this event going ahead.
It looks like it’ll be a big one, so join us at the intersection of Queen St and Edward St from 8am to defend our right to peaceful protest and free speech. Just make sure you check the Facebook event for any updates following the outcome of Mayor Schrinner’s court challenge.
Of course you won and you deserve to win especially when the state government has its brains in a twist trying to promote Circular Economy BS and failing to stand up for real sane people. Law and order proposals should start with running the snake oil merchants into prison and leave the real economic leaders alone to march in the streets.