A Sydney court has blocked a planned pro-Palestinian march to the opera house this weekend. New South Wales Police challenged the plans, citing safety concerns.

ABC NEWS (Australia)

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00:00The Palestine Action Group was the group behind these plans to march to the Opera House on Sunday,

00:07and they had anticipated about 40,000 people might take part, meeting in Hyde Park first

00:12and then making their way down to the Opera House forecourt.

00:15But New South Wales Police took them to court and opposed the plans on safety grounds,

00:20citing fears, amongst others, of a potential crowd crush.

00:24Today the Court of Appeal has ruled that this rally should be the subject of a prohibition order.

00:29Justice Stephen Free, who was one of three judges who oversaw this case,

00:34has said that the Court considered things like the likely size of the crowd, the route of the march,

00:38and the physical constraints of that end destination,

00:41and unanimously come to the view that the public safety risk here is extreme.

00:47The Court has found that the mitigating factors proposed by the protesters in terms of reducing that risk

00:53were not enough to bring them down to an acceptable level,

00:56and the judges have said that the risk to public safety associated with this public assembly is so significant

01:03that it would be irresponsible to allow it to proceed.

01:06Outside of the circumstances of this case in particular,

01:09there is something also legally significant in this judgement.

01:13The Court of Appeal appears to have clarified the potential consequences of breaching a prohibition order.

01:19In this judgement, it has said that anyone who is aware of a prohibition order,

01:24but attends an unauthorised assembly, may be rendered in contempt of court.

01:29The judges have commented that the legislation here is decisive,

01:33and a prohibition order operates to do precisely what the terms of the order suggest,

01:38that is, prohibit a proposed public assembly.

01:41Among the people welcoming this decision today are the Premier, Chris Minns,

01:45who has said that it has validated the decision by the police to bring this matter to court,

01:50and senior police have also been explaining why they decided to initiate the proceedings in the first place.

01:56Experts with the police plan these things so we don't get crowd crushes,

02:01and that's what it's all about for us. It's public safety.

02:04It's why we need time to plan and work with people before we adhere to their Form 1s,

02:10before we agree to facilitate public assemblies.

02:13The cul-de-sac, the peninsula that it was on, the ingress and egress routes,

02:19they gave me great concern of a crowd crush,

02:22and for those reasons that's why we took it to the Court of Appeal.

02:26The Palestine Action Group has now negotiated an alternative route for their event on Sunday.

02:30They will still gather in the CBD, but instead of heading to the Opera House forecourt,

02:35they now plan to go down George Street in the CBD.

02:39One of their organisers, Damien Ridgewell, though, has said that he has concerns

02:43about the effect of this legal decision on their future plans.

02:48Obviously the court proceedings did not go our way today,

02:51and we won't be marching to the Opera House,

02:54but we know that courts often get things wrong, that's why we have appeals,

02:58and it also highlights the urgent need in this state for urgent legal reform around the rights to protest.

03:05Our right to protest is paramount in a democratic society,

03:10and the campaign in solidarity with Palestine has been absolutely an example

03:16about why we need to enshrine the right to protest in our legal system,

03:21so that people who are trying to use our democratic rights to stop genocides

03:25are not constantly faced attempts to block them by the police and political institutions.

03:30The protesters have also said that they've reserved their decision about whether or not they will challenge this ruling.

03:36but they are a long-term minded citizen.

03:37Everybody, on the floor, and the camera's a big deal.

03:39They have also presented their decisions about how they like to protest the troops,

03:40and it's really fun because of this warning.

03:41If you don't have to protest, you won't have to protest at the police.

03:42This is the priority of the leaders,

03:43the leaders who have created their cultural conditions,

03:44and it is not a surprise to protest in theесcule.

03:46They won't have to protest ilegal in either of the rules,

03:47the leaders who have refused to protest the election.

03:48They have to protest in the elections.

03:49The second area of the civil crime scene is directed at the law,

03:50where we have to protest in the schools.

03:51The other parties have been put in the schools.

03:52In the schools where they have to protest and have a escalate

03:54in our elections,

03:56the civil unions stand,

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