Readers back Premier Chris Minns in his bid to improve police power to reject ongoing protests

An overwhelming majority has expressed strong support for granting police the authority to reject planned protests, following the Premier’s announcement of a review into resource allocation for managing these events.

An overwhelming majority of people have expressed strong support for granting police the authority to reject planned protests, following the Premier’s announcement of a review into resource allocation for managing these events.

A survey conducted by The Daily Telegraph revealed a significant 94 per cent of more than 1500 respondents believe that police should have the authority to reject pro-Palestinian rallies in Sydney.

It comes after Chris Minns said police should have greater powers to reject ongoing protests that stretch over weeks, pointing to the significant financial burden on taxpayers.

Minns specifically pointed to pro-Palestinian rallies in Sydney CBD, which have been held every week over the past year and have cost more than $5.4 million in policing since January.

“The cost is huge … so I’m going to have a review into the resourcing that police put into these marches, and it’s my view that police should be able to be in a position to deny a request for a march due to stretched police resourcing,” Minns said on Monday.

He noted that these repeated protests are draining resources that could be allocated to other priorities.

“When you’ve got someone putting in an application every seven days for 51 weeks to march through Sydney streets, this is costing millions of dollars, and I think taxpayers should be in a position to say we would prefer that money spent on roadside breath testing, domestic violence investigations, knife crimes, rather than the huge resources that’s going into the city and the community.”

Both NSW Liberal and Labor have said police need more powers to reject serial protest applications. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Yet NSW opposition leader Mark Speakman called on the Premier to implement the changes immediately and not defer them with a review.

He said the current Police user-pays system could be immediately updated to force serial protesters to foot the policing bill.

“We can no longer allow serial protests to drain millions from our public purse,” he said.

“By amending section 208 of the Police Act we can introduce a mechanism to ensure repeat protest organisers can be held accountable for the costs they impose on our community – with a general rule against authorisation for repeat protests if the organisers won’t meet the cost.”

Premier Chris Minns called for more police power to reject protests costing taxpayer dollars. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

Mr Minns told media on Tuesday there would be no need for a legislative change in order to allow police to reject protests on grounds of stretched police resources, saying police already note those concerns in applications to the courts.

“Our resources are being stretched, it costs millions of dollars to police and marshal these protests and it’s completely reasonable for the police to take that into consideration when Form 1 applications are lodged with the courts,” he said.

“I want police to be in a position to be able to, if they feel they don’t have the resources, deny an application for a march through Sydney because they’ve got other jobs to do.”

“It’s been stretched for the last month for the last six weeks, our police are burnt out and tired.”

Mr Minns said he was not trying to stifle free speech and did not want any changes to apply to union protests or industrial relations disputes. I’m not saying in relation to union activity or protests around industrial disruption.

He also revealed the organiser of that rally not only organises the Palestinian Action Group but also a variety of other groups.

“The person who puts in the application each week for the Palestinian Action Group also is the spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, The Lockdown to Zero; Occupy Sydney as the spokesman.”

Minns argued that police should be empowered to reject repeated protests on the grounds of overstretched resources.

“Police need to be in a position to assess that request and say we can’t do it this weekend, because you’ve done it for the previous 50 weekends,” he said, pointing to the impact on public safety and law enforcement priorities.

Police at a pro-Palestinian rally at Sydney’s Hyde Park. Picture: Roni Bintang/Getty Images

Mr Minns also told reporters he backed a Commonwealth review into the visa status of an American law professor after he told a pro-Palestine rally at Lakemba that October 7 is a “good day” and a day of “celebration”.

Mr Minns said on Tuesday the comments “were thoroughly obnoxious and reprehensible views that were expressed on a day of remorse and sorrow, particularly for the Jewish community or anyone that was outraged by the crime committed on October 7 last year”.

“Completely unsympathetic of those who are going through a terrible day in Sydney and around the world and I understand that his visa is being reviewed by the Commonwealth government and that is completely appropriate,” the Premier said.

“It’s hard to think of a more straightforward example of someone coming to Australia and whipping up division in our community.”

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Originally published as Readers back Premier Chris Minns in his bid to improve police power to reject ongoing protests