NSW Premier Chris Minns says he is hopeful the federal government will help pay for policing major protests about the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Key points:
- The premier’s call has been supported by Opposition leader Mark Speakman
- Up to 800 police officers have worked overtime to manage recent protests
- The NSW government will also review current hate speech laws after finding one charge has only been laid eight times since 2018
Mr Minns confirmed his government will ask the Commonwealth to assist in covering the cost to taxpayers, which he put at more than one million dollars for large rallies.
“We’ll be in talks with the Commonwealth in the next 24 hours,” he said on Monday.
“Hopefully, we can get agreement.”
Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli rallies have been held weekly in Sydney since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, sparking an ongoing military conflict in the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, hundreds of police were in attendance as thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators filled Hyde Park.
Mr Minns said upwards of 800 police officers were working overtime to manage some of the recent protests.
“It’s an enormous amount of money. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the NSW government, or potentially the Victorian government too if they want, to ask the Commonwealth for help,” he said.
Police said there were no incidents and no arrests made at the most recent event on Sunday.
NSW Police Association President Kevin Morton said the ongoing protests were straining police resources.
Mr Morton said officers had worked about 3,500 shifts on the protests to date.
“Every operational shift you take away from a command to man these protests is one operational shift that command doesn’t have to ensure the community is policed,” he told ABC Radio Sydney.
Opposition leader Mark Speakman backed the premier’s call for funding.
“As it is a foreign affairs issue, ultimately, Commonwealth support would be welcome,” Mr Speakman said.
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus declined to comment on the issue.
ABC News: Keana Naughton
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Government to review hate speech laws amid escalating tensions
The premier said the government would look at whether 2018 reforms against hate crimes were working.
An offence was added to the Crimes Act – under section 93Z – criminalising publicly threatening or inciting violence on several grounds, including race and religion.
Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) data show the charge has been used only eight times since it was introduced.
All those charges have since been withdrawn.
“[Section 93Z] is resulting in no prosecutions and if you’re going to have a law on the books saying racial vilification and hate speech is not allowed in NSW, then it can’t be toothless,” Mr Minns said.
“I don’t think anyone would, with a straight face, make the claim that hate speech has been extinguished in the state,” he said.
University of Sydney law professor Simon Rice said the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had an obligation to only pursue cases with reasonable prospects of a conviction.
“Vilification is not an easy thing to prove beyond reasonable doubt,” Professor Rice said.
“It’s very difficult to get a prosecution up when what you’re trying to prove is not that it’s happened but that something could have happened, or that someone had a feeling.”
Professor Rice said the government should read the report from a 2017 parliamentary inquiry that led to the creation of 93Z.
The inquiry examined the effectiveness of section 20D of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977, which made serious racial vilification an offence but never resulted in a successful prosecution.
Professor Rice said a law did not necessarily need to be prosecuted to send a message to the community.
“We have laws on the books to make a public statement of principle to alert people to conduct that would be unacceptable.”