The ‘justice warrior’ who has raised the ire of Chris Minns

Chris Minns doesn’t seem to like Josh Lees.

While the showdown over whether Sunday’s proposed march across the Harbour Bridge goes ahead is ostensibly between activists and authorities, it’s clear that the premier has little time for the socialist activist who has been a driving force behind the pro-Palestine protests that Minns has pushed hard to curtail.

Josh Lees at a press conference about the proposed protest rally across the Harbour Bridge.Credit: Wolter Peeters

As his frustration mounted last year, Minns dismissed Lees as a professional protester (the descriptor was put to him, and he agreed), whose weekly protest applications had cost taxpayers $5 million in resources.

Broadcaster Ben Fordham went further, questioning what Lees did for a living and saying he could write on his résumé that he was a “full-time pain in the arse”.

It’s true the list of causes for which 43-year-old Lees has taken to the streets is long and diverse; it reaches back 20-odd years to the Iraq War and John Howard’s refugee policies, and stretches through the Occupy Sydney movement, protesting corporate greed, inequality and capitalism, to Black Lives Matter and COVID, when he called for tighter lockdowns.

But Lees’ supporters say the suggestion he’ll jump behind a megaphone for the facile thrill of annoying the establishment is unfair.

NSW Premier Chris Minns is no fan of Lees.Credit: Sam Mooy

They say he has come a long way in the 20-odd years since he made breathless headlines in the Green Left Weekly as a university tutor charged with resisting arrest over a voluntary student unionism protests, when “scores of police” with dogs and on horseback were sent to deal with a clash between his supporters and a group of young Liberals chanting “cops are tops” outside the courtroom.

With the help of sympathetic lawyers and two decades of activist experience, he is now among the leaders of the Palestine Action Group negotiating with law enforcement to stage weekly protests, and attempting to curtail pro-Palestine protests in court.

Recently, he launched a constitutional challenge to laws introduced by the Minns government restricting protests near places of worship.

Greens MP Sue Higginson is a fan. She describes him as a justice warrior. “Josh is somebody who is deeply respectful of the people he works with, and he’s deeply respectful of our democracy,” she said. “I mean that in the sense of our legal process, including the way our laws are made and the way the courts uphold them.”

Lees has been a driving force behind pro-Palestine protests in Sydney.Credit: Edwina Pickles

Little is known about Lees’ personal background. He holds a degree in political economy from the University of Sydney, a course that has long attracted politically motivated students because it’s based on the premise that economies aren’t just mathematical systems, but influenced by power and social forces (Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is a more famous graduate).

He grew up in a pro-trade union household, but his shift to the far left of politics happened towards the end of his time at university. He writes for Red Flag, a newspaper published by the political group Socialist Alternative, socialists who are also known as Trotskyists (and who are loathed by Minns’ faction, the Labor right).

He has a day job, but has never given any hints about what that might be. He lives in the inner west and grew up in Sydney’s north-west. Much has been made of his strawberry-blond man bun. He has faced a few minor charges relating to protest activity, many of which have been dismissed. He refused to be interviewed or photographed for this piece.

Greens MP Sue Higginson describes Lee as a justice warrior.Credit: Janie Barrett

Minns, who has previously flagged the possibility of making it harder for Palestinian protesters to obtain a permit, has said a march across the bridge would throw the city into chaos and would not be allowed under any circumstances, even if more notice had been given. A march is supported by the Greens, but opposed by the Jewish community and the NSW opposition.

“I vehemently support the right of free protest, but like all rights, it’s not unlimited,” said Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, who argues the weekly pro-Palestine protests have empowered others to persecute Jewish Australians. “Because [the protesters are] extremist by nature, they try to exploit every right to the extreme.”

Lees is not alone in his concern about the government’s attempts to curtail protests in NSW, a debate that has been reignited by Minns’ opposition to the bridge march. There are concerns from human rights groups, the legal fraternity and even from within Labor.

The most recent Labor critic is upper house MP and barrister Stephen Lawrence, who said community concern about the situation in Gaza was increasing, and senior political leaders across both major parties had created an environment that was “hostile to protests concerned with the rights of Palestinian people”.

Regardless of whether the march across the bridge goes ahead on the weekend, Chris Minns has not seen the last of Josh Lees.

“The best way to fight for the right to protest,” Lees has written in Red Flag, “is to protest, in bigger numbers than ever.”

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