“There has been a proliferation of vague, unnecessary and dangerous laws on protest rights…that get the balance wrong”

Backchat reporter Hannah Ryan investigated the Baird government’s new anti-protest law, which greatly increases penalties for engaging in environmental protests.

The law has been criticised by activists, civil libertarians and unionists – including Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey, who questions its constitutionality:

It’s interfering with peoples’ right of political expression in this state. If there are grounds to mount a legal challenge about these laws, then we will certainly do it.

Ryan interviewed former Greens leader Bob Brown, human rights expert Hugh de Kretzer, and constitutional law expert Professor Anne Twomey.
 

Photo credit: Beyond Coal and Gas (CC BY 2.0)