With his fondness for vibrant scarves and mismatched socks, a proclivity to break into spoken word poetry and a long history of getting arrested at protests, Sriranganathan could be dismissed as either a ratbag pollie or harmless eccentric. Reams of shrill headlines and front pages – “Despicable Sri” among them – attest to those efforts. – Joe Hinchliffe writing for the Guardian (@joe_hinchliffe).
Open letter to Joe Hinchliffe of The Guardian
Re: ‘He’s broken the mould of what a politician should look like’: the Brisbane councillor who reshaped the Greens“
Dear Joe,
I read your article in the Guardian about councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan.
I think you need to get things in perspective. I don’t suppose you spoke to your dad, David Hinchliffe, before you wrote that article in The Guardian?
Councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan goes before the beak (again) on 24 April 2023 Brisbane Magistrates Court in George Street probably Court 26 or 27 on a charge of trespass while in the Southbank area opposing an arms dealer convention held at the Brisbane Entertainment and Convention centre. The arms dealers were sponsored by both Queensland and Australian governments and opposed by Wage Peace (Disrupt Land Forces).
Still not brought to trial after nearly 7 months since his arrest, Jonathan Sriranganathan will be acquitted of the trespass charge because the Labor Party in government, under pressure from the street marches in Queensland, introduced the Peaceful Assembly Act 1992. Police do not dispute that the assembly was peaceful, the organisers submitted a notice of intention, it was a ‘public assembly’*, and the former councillor has the benefit of legal immunity under the act.
Turn up if you can and support his defence.
David Hinchliffe, one time aspirant to the throne of a Labor City Brisbane Council Mayor, and who, by chance, documented the tail end of my career as one of Queensland’s most arrested people on political charges. But not the most arrested, Ian Rintoul, former International Socialist now refugee advocate, held that dubious honour.
There was a period of eight years where I was arrested on at least 14 occasions on over 30 charges for engagement in the Democratic Rights struggle in Queensland. The other Ian was arrested on more than 30 occasions.
It got so serious that the Sergeant at the South Brisbane watchhouse, upon my arrival at his charge bench one day, said: “Well, well, well, what is it to be this time, Mr Curr?” I was arrested that morning at a Liberal Party rally for Malcolm Fraser who was running for a second term as Prime Minister in 1978. My charge? Speaking to attract a crowd (I kid you not).
I was arrested alongside Frank Dowling who had sufficient Irish republicanism in him to get up and challenge Malcolm Fraser, the Tory squatter from Nareen in Victoria, sheep farmer and toff who had asked Sir John Kerr to sack the Whitlam government. It was the third time that day that Frank had been arrested but his only political arrest by special branch. It was probably the 10th time that I’d been arrested since the ban on political street marches on 4 September 1977 by Qld Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Free speech for the exploiters, but what about the workers!
Let me tell you Joe, Jonathan Sriranganathan is correct: ‘everything is political (except the personal)‘ … it’s just The Guardian doesn’t get it in the same way that the Courier Mail didn’t get it in the 1970s. Corporate media, why would you work there? We all have to earn a dollar somehow, I suppose.
Ironically your dad, David Hinchliffe, who once wanted to follow in the footsteps of populist Bob Hawke, took this photograph of me being arrested during the SEQEB dispute in 1985.
Anyway let’s compare Jonathan Sri’s prodigious list of arrests during 7 years in office as a councillor: one, speaking in the Brisbane City Mall [I was found guilty over a 15-minute, four-person protest. Council crackdowns on assembly have gone too far – Jonathan Sriranganathan]; and, the other one, at the Brisbane Convention Centre against arms dealers.
From memory, these are my arrests during the democratic rights struggle in Queensland from 1977 till 1985.
- 11th of November 1977, arrested for unlawful possession and disobey a lawful direction opposing the ban on street marches and the mining and export of uranium;
- 3rd of December 1977 arrested for unlawful possession and disobey lawful direction. Marching against the ban on street marches and for the trade union right to organise;
- Sometime in November arrested at a rally for Malcolm Fraser – the charge was speaking to attract a crowd; and later ,
- Arrested for the same charge in ANZAC Park. Both were arrests for the democratic right to organise;
- January 1978 – arrested for contempt of court – charged, convicted, and sentenced to 2 weeks prison but someone paid the fine.
- 4th March 1978 – arrested while marching from King George Square to Roma Street Forum but managed to break free of police and escape from being locked up in the watchouse;
- 31st of March 1978 arrested outside Griffith University on Kessells Road for disobey lawful direction, unlawful possession, wilful damage, and a breach of the peace in the night time. I was acquitted by a jury of the latter two charges of burning a magistrates lawn.
- 21 August 1978 arrested in Adelaide Street for disobey lawful direction and unlawful possession in opposition to the state government, Joh Must Go!
- 7th December 1978 arrested at a trade union rally with similar charges.
- 20th August 1980 arrested in Townsville for wilful damage namely graffiti against the banks and the mining and export of uranium.
- 12th August 1980 arrested for contempt of court sentenced to 2 weeks jail and served the sentence in Stuart Creek prison until a successful appeal against the conviction was upheld by the district court of Queensland. Served 11 days in prison.
- Arrested for wilful damage (graffitti) by Sergeant Joseph Patrick Donnelly, verballed and put in prison. Two years later the DPP enetered a Nolle Prosequi after a jury returned a ‘hung’ verdict.
- SEQEB dispute 1985 – arrested for holding up a banner, JOH MUST GO and for resisting arrest – photographed by your father David Hinchliffe when he was the media officer for the Trades and Labour Council Queensland. I was acquitted of the Resist arrest but convicted of holding up the banner.
The Democratic rights struggle and the current one are two different periods of history: the uprising in 1977 came as a result of opposition to the state government that was highly repressive, anti-worker and wanted to mine and export uranium as part of the international nuclear feel cycle.
Current governments are pro war and have done little or nothing to stop climate change. Jono Sriranganathan mobilised the youth dvote against a very Conservative Liberal party controlled Brisbane City Council. This manage to ignite success for the Greens in Queensland at state and federal level.
We will miss you, Jonno!
Ian Curr
4 April 2023
*a “public assembly” means an assembly held in a public place, whether or not the assembly is at a particular place or moving …
public assembly = a place open to or used by the public as of right.
Reference
PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY ACT 1992