The struggle for democratic rights

In my lifetime, there have been three or four major struggles relating to democratic rights in Australia.

The first, and perhaps the most important, has been the struggle in Queensland for Aboriginal people to no longer be governed under the Acts that forced them onto what were effectively concentration camps. The campaign for the repeal of the Acts took nearly a hundred years. It was not until the 1980s that the Acts were repealed.

Going alongside this was the struggle for land rights. That, too, was an important part of the struggle for democratic rights.

Another struggle, which occurred Australia-wide, was the struggle for women’s rights. This included a woman’s right to choose. That struggle took about 40 years before the Queensland Parliament finally decriminalised abortion.

The greatest struggle in defiance of government that has occurred in Queensland was the struggle for the democratic rights to march, assemble and organise, from 4 September 1977 until July 1979.

There were more than 3,000 arrests. On one afternoon alone, 22 October 1977, 418 people were arrested while attempting to march in opposition to the mining and export of uranium.

The final struggle I would like to bring to your attention is the fight over the past three years by Palestinian solidarity organisations in Australia, and particularly in Queensland, for the democratic right to organise against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

That struggle has now continued for three years — more than 1,000 days.

Last night, a petition signed by 4,678 people called on the Queensland Parliament to repeal its hate-speech laws, which Palestinian solidarity organisations argue restrict their political expression and criminalise people for saying something that has been said for generations:

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Historical note: The democratic-rights struggles referred to above span more than a century of Queensland history. The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 established an extensive system of state control over Aboriginal people’s movement, residence, employment and lives. Although much of the protection regime was dismantled during the 1970s, the Aborigines Act 1971 was not repealed until 1984. The struggle for land rights developed alongside, and continued beyond, the campaign against these laws.

Queensland decriminalised abortion through the Termination of Pregnancy Act 2018, following decades of campaigning for women’s reproductive rights.

Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen announced restrictions on political street marches on 4 September 1977. The resulting right-to-march struggle continued until 1979 and produced about 3,000 arrests, involving roughly 2,000 people, some of whom were arrested repeatedly. On 22 October 1977 alone, 418 people were arrested during a major Brisbane demonstration associated with opposition to uranium mining and export.

The current struggle over Palestine solidarity and political expression has acquired a new legal dimension in Queensland. The Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Act 2026 identifies the expressions “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada” as prohibited expressions. Section 52DA creates an offence where a prohibited expression is publicly used in circumstances that might reasonably be expected to cause a member of the public to feel menaced, harassed or offended, subject to statutory reasonable-excuse provisions. The maximum penalty is two years’ imprisonment.

The Queensland parliamentary petition Protect the right to political expression, sponsored by Michael Berkman MP with Rosa Monsour of Justice for Palestine Magan-djin as principal petitioner, closed on 15 September 2026. Justice for Palestine Magan-djin records the final total as 4,678 signatures.