Not since Neville Wran kicked gay people in the guts in 1978 has there been so much calumny and hypocrisy inside the New South Wales Labor Right.
A major confrontation occurred when New South Wales police violently broke up the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras march. Fifty-three people were arrested on 24 June, and further demonstrations brought the total arrested between June and August to 178. The Fairfax paper, the Sydney Morning Herald, published the names of those arrested, outing people at a time when consensual sex between men remained criminal in New South Wales. Some subsequently lost their jobs or suffered other serious consequences.
Those 178 people who were arrested and vilified have, in the nearly 50 years since, become known as the 78ers, a name they proudly use to identify themselves and their place in the struggle for gay and lesbian rights.
Many of the 78ers went on to become active in community organisations and other social movements. A number have made remarkable contributions. One in particular has done fantastic work in the struggle against HIV/AIDS and in the Palestine solidarity movement through Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA, representing the Australian union movement on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza and in the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut.
Neville Wran’s government was behaving like the Bjelke-Petersen government in Queensland, using the Summary Offences Act against political street marches.
And now we come to the current situation, where the Queensland government has restricted freedom of political expression directed against Israel and in support of Palestine by criminalising specified expressions associated with the Palestine solidarity movement.
1978 Gay and lesbian Mardi gras in Darlinghurst in Sydney
Another Labor government has entered the fight on the side of darkness.
Seven individual plaintiffs have gone to the High Court challenging legislation enacted by Queensland’s Crisafulli LNP government that prohibits particular uses of the expressions “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”.
The plaintiffs include Justice for Palestine Magan-djin spokesperson Remah Naji. Four of the seven have been arrested and charged under the Queensland legislation. Another plaintiff, police caused artist Nordacious to withdraw artwork containing a prohibited expression.
It is important to be precise about this.
Justice for Palestine Magan-djin is not the plaintiff. Seven individuals are bringing the constitutional challenge. Justice for Palestine Magan-djin supports them and has organised politically around their case.
Their case alleges that the legislation imposes a direct, content-based restriction upon political communication and discriminates against one side of a political controversy.
Now NSW Labor wants to join Queensland in defending those laws.
“As we argued from the outset of the High Court challenge, this battle was always bigger than Queensland. The recent intervention by NSW has made that impossible to ignore.”
Justice for Palestine Magan-djin media release, 1 October 2026
The NSW Attorney-General has sought leave for NSW to participate alongside Queensland. This is particularly significant because the Minns government has itself indicated that it wants legislation directed at “globalise the intifada”.
Justice for Palestine Magan-djin says plainly that the intervention puts governments from both sides of mainstream Australian politics on the same side of this constitutional dispute.
“NSW has just made it easier for us to take this fight nationally against the Coalition and Labor, both complicit in crimes against humanity.”
Remah Naji, spokesperson for Justice for Palestine Magan-djin
This did not begin yesterday.
From Bondi to the streets of Sydney
The political atmosphere changed dramatically after the Bondi Beach massacre in December 2025. Governments responded with tougher measures directed at the Palestine solidarity movement rather than the the Zionism lobby behind the genocide in Gaza. Queensland’s prohibited-expression legislation itself was passed in the aftermath of Bondi.
Then came the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Australia, a man who encouraged genocide and signed bombs to obliterate Gaza.
On 9 February 2026, thousands gathered at Sydney Town Hall to protest Herzog’s visit and Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
NSW Police arrested 27 people and deployed pepper spray.
Police behaving like hooligans attacked Muslims saying prayers in the street, bashing willy-nilly anyone who came in their way. It was a riot, very like the police riot and the vehemence of the attack on the 78ers. Police boasted to each other about what they were doing, just like the IDF would. It was collateral damage. Only they didn’t murder people. On an earlier occasion one woman suffered a severe eye injury. Others were badly injured. Many were pepper-sprayed in the face.
It is for all these reasons that Justice for Palestine Magan-djin must continue its fight against these undemocratic laws and must continue it on the streets, in the courts and elsewhere.
Ian Curr, 2 October 2026.
