Why I changed the law to stop protesters: fury of a minister caught in traffic jam

It was about 8.30am on Monday, March 14. I was on the Spit Bridge, on the way to a domestic violence funding announcement when suddenly, without warning, everything came to a halt. It quickly became clear: the protesters were back, sitting in the middle of the bridge. And they didn’t care about the havoc they were creating for everyone caught in the traffic standstill.

A protest at Port Botany last month.Credit: Blockade Australia

More was to come. Within a few weeks, they would target the Western Distributor, Port Botany – not once but for an entire week – then the Princes Highway near Sylvania and General Holmes Drive at Brighton-Le-Sands.

I was one of many stuck in that car park on the Spit Bridge, but that wasn’t what made my blood boil most. It was the kids in the car next to me who couldn’t get to school, the workers who couldn’t get to their jobs.

And what about the economic implications for all those truckies unable to access Port Botany? The potentially devastating consequences for someone needing urgent medical care? A mother-to-be about to have a baby?

Quite simply, I wasn’t prepared to have a small group of selfish, disruptive protesters continue to hold our state to ransom. We needed to act. Immediately, through changes to regulation, I was able to increase penalties for protesters who disrupted traffic on bridges and tunnels to up to two years’ jail and/or a $22,000 fine.

Then, after two midnight sittings and an extra day of Parliament, the NSW government passed the Roads and Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill through both houses of Parliament to add prescribed major roads, public transport and infrastructure facilities, such as Port Botany, across the state.

Critics, including Kieran Pender from the Human Rights Law Centre, who wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald, have described the measures as “draconian, unnecessary and disproportionate”. The new law is none of those things. It is a measured approach to a problem that clearly the public wants us to confront. We are all fed up.

Let’s be clear. We are not denying the right to protest. This government will always fight to protect democratic values. These new laws strike the correct balance between free speech and the right to peaceful protest, and the right for people to safely get on with their lives. These protesters want to inflict maximum pain on innocent commuters on our roads, train lines, bridges, tunnels and ports.

It is not fair or reasonable to deny others the right to get on with their day, to make them late for work to earn a living for their families or get their kids to school. To hold them to ransom by the selfish actions of a few is not “peaceful protest”. It is plain stupid.

Labor claimed to support these penalties but, in a sneaky back-door political manoeuvre, it attempted to water them down. It sent its roads spokesman to the Legislative Council to amend the bill to carve out, and I quote, “peaceful protests”. Had that amendment passed, and I thank the crossbench for ensuring it didn’t, the bill would essentially have been null and void.

What we have now is a clear and necessary message to those selfish protesters, who brought this on themselves. From now on, it will be you paying the price.

Natalie Ward is the NSW Minister for Metropolitan Roads.