NSW narrows Sydney protest restriction, Hyde Park available for Invasion Day march

The New South Wales police commissioner has extended a restriction on protests in parts of Sydney for a third time but narrowed the area it covers ahead of Invasion Day, the commissioner said. Mal Lanyon said the restriction would no longer include Hyde Park, allowing police to authorise the major annual Invasion Day protest to march from that location to Victoria Park on Monday.

Police have also authorised an anti‑immigration march, run by March for Australia, from Prince Alfred Park to Moore Park. Lanyon said the 14‑day extension to the declaration would still apply “from Darling Harbour through the north of the CBD ... and then out through Oxford Street and take in all of the eastern suburbs police area command”.

The power to restrict authorisations was granted last year after laws were rushed through parliament in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, a change that has been described as controversial because it can prevent organisers carrying out major protests without risking arrests. Lanyon said the move was intended to “get the balance right between community safety and a right to protest” and called for calm, saying “we are still less than six weeks from the most serious and devastating terrorism act ever [committed] in New South Wales.” He said 1,500 police would be deployed to 26 January events and a third of those would be monitoring protests.

Key Topics

Politics, Nsw Police, Invasion Day, Hyde Park, Bondi Terror Attack