By making protests conditional on state approval, governments are eroding our democracy

In July, a group in Bathurst, New South Wales wanted to hold a small rally in a local park against culling wild horses, known as brumbies.

When an organiser notified the council, they were told they would need $20 million in public liability insurance.

Organisers for the same cause reported facing similar barriers in councils across Australia, including Bendigo, Newcastle, Queanbeyan, Yarragon and Adelaide.

This wasn’t a stadium event. It was people wanting to stand in a public space and object to something the government was doing.

These examples are just some of many. Before they can protest, people across the country increasingly need permission. If they don’t get it, they risk heavy fines, jail time and violent dispersal. The NSW police watchdog is currently investigating the use of force at a rally in Sydney.

Our new research, released today by the Australian Democracy Network and Deakin University’s Centre for Law as Protection, maps how protest permit systems work in every state and territory. The result is a tangle of laws, council by-laws and public place rules so complex that people struggle to find out, in advance, whether they may even turn up.

Part of the problem is confusion between notification and authorisation systems.

A notification system asks organisers to give police a heads-up so a protest can run safely.

An authorisation system does the opposite: the protest can’t lawfully go ahead, or loses its legal protection, unless the state approves it.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Australia has signed, allows the first, not the second. United Nations guidance is instructive: having to apply for permission undermines protest’s status as a basic right.

Australia has already learnt this. In the 1970s and ‘80s, protests against the Vietnam war, the Bjelke-Petersen government and anti-queer discrimination were violently dispersed in South Australia, Queensland and NSW.

To avoid a repeat of this violence, governments responded with notification systems to facilitate protest and shield it from offences like obstruction.