Page: 21100
Ms SYLVIA HALE [11.31 p.m.]: On 17 February eight people were arrested as a result of a demonstration, or rather, a "Dis-Memorial Service", on the day of Kerry Packer's taxpayer-funded State funeral. I have since received a letter from an organiser of the service. It reads in part:
We are writing to you in reference to the events at Sydney Opera House last Friday - 17 February. We remain concerned at the abuse of the ethos of such state memorials by Prime Minister John Howard concerning Kerry Packer. Like many ordinary tax-payers, we were offended by the proposed tax-payer funded service, & hence we organized the non-taxpayer funded 'Kerry Packer Dis-Memorial', outside the perimeter of the Opera House last Friday morning.
Having come to an agreement with the NSW police & Opera House security that we could have our 'service' near Macquarie St - a long way from the entrance to the Opera House - we, approximately 50 people, proceeded with our alternative, dis-celebration via speeches, music & comedy. After about 20 mins, the police came to us with a complaint: that we were too loud, so we became quieter; & then 10 mins later they complained that we were using 'offensive' language, of which they couldn't give specific examples. Then suddenly they reneged on their agreement, & began arresting anyone brave enough to argue with them.
The Greens support the right to demonstrate and speak one's mind. It is truly disturbing that these arrests, on dubious pretexts, took place. I predict the police will lose when the matter comes before the courts, but that is not the point. The point of the police action was to suppress the voice of public dissent, and they succeeded in doing that. There were 50 people at the dis-memorial service. Eight people were arrested. Most have been charged with offences under the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Act and regulations, a piece of legislation that has always had the potential to repress dissent. The charges were a combination of failing to comply with a direction to leave an area, resisting and hindering, and using a public address [PA] system without authority.
I am told that at the demonstration the police forcibly confiscated the demonstrators' PA on the supposed pretext of offensive language, when no offensive words had been spoken. It was in the context of people being outraged at the police seizing the PA that the arrests started. People in attendance say that they were not requested by police to move—as is required under the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Act, itself an entirely suspect and discredited piece of legislation. A television camera even filmed one person saying, "I'm moving, I'm moving", immediately before that person was arrested. It is utterly inappropriate and unreasonable to require members of the public participating in a legitimate and peaceful demonstration to "move on". Significantly, Justice Geoffrey Robertson, QC, the distinguished Australian human rights lawyer and first President of the United Nations war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, witnessed the arrests and has agreed to provide a witness statement.
Those arrested will appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on 14 March. There will be a gathering outside the court of people concerned about the rapid erosion of civil liberties in this country and in this State. These arrests were an attack on civil and political rights and freedoms. The Greens opposed the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Act and the Redfem Waterloo Authority Act, which authorise each authority to establish a private security force, in the same way that the Greens opposed the terrorism detention-without-trial amendment legislation of 2005. The Greens are always accused of scaremongering and exaggeration when we warn of the gradual erosion of civil liberties and suspension of law. But I know first-hand how these laws are used to repress legitimate democratic activity. As I recounted to the Sydney Harbour foreshore inquiry in 2005, I had my name taken for handing out leaflets at Circular Quay to ferry commuters. The fact that the threat to have me forcibly removed or arrested came to nothing is no doubt attributable to my being a member of Parliament rather than to any acknowledgement of the importance of free speech and the right to assembly.
It is obvious now that our fears are well founded in light of the arrest of people who were peacefully demonstrating against the gross misuse of taxpayers' money to stage a State funeral for one of Australia's richest men. You may or may not agree that Packer deserved a State funeral—the Greens say that he did not; he was a bullying billionaire businessman rather than a community-minded philanthropist—but you must agree that citizens of Australia have a right to publicly protest about the use and misuse of taxpayers' money.