The right to protest campaign in New South Wales has won a significant victory with the state govern

The right to protest campaign in New South Wales has won a significant victory with the state government conceding that demonstrations of up to 500 people are now allowed.

For most of this year, protests about everything from Black Lives Matter to education cuts and LGBTI rights have been broken up by riot police and activists have collectively been fined more than $50,000 for organising or attending them. The government backdown exposes that the police’s claim that protests constituted a public health risk was always bogus, and that the anti-democratic measures were a politically motivated manoeuvre by the police and Liberal state government to crush dissent.

There are still some limitations on the right to protest that should be scrapped, including the cap of 500 attendees. Considering 40,000 people are currently allowed to attend sporting events in New South Wales, a riskier undertaking than protest, this limitation is clearly motivated by politics, not public health. There is also still a fight to overturn the fines accrued by activists as a result of the previous measures.

READ MORE: Defiant campaign wins concessions on right to protest in NSW