Four banned by police lose appeal – APEC 2007: [3 All-round Metro Edition]
Nicola Berkovic, Dan Box, Additional reporting: John Stapleton, AAP. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 07 Sep 2007: 11.
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Abstract
The court’s decision came after a convoy of people travelling to Sydney for this weekend’s APEC protests was pulled over by police and the vehicles searched for drugs soon after they crossed the NSW border. The convoy of two cars and a minibus, bringing about 20 members of the Socialist Party from Melbourne, was stopped at the town of Tarcutta, near Wagga Wagga.
“They were doing a drug search, they have a dog. They have said it’s APEC-related,” Mr [Stephen Jolly] said. “They wanted to know where we are staying in Sydney, they wanted to know what we are going to be doing by way of APEC activities. It’s unexpected, but I guess you have to expect the unexpected these days.”
Socialist Party national organiser Anthony Main said police had identified themselves as “APEC investigators” but were not acting under the special powers granted by the NSW Government for the duration of the APEC summit, which allow police to detain suspects with no guarantee of bail.
Full Text
PROTEST
FOUR men blacklisted by NSW police from attending a protest inside the APEC declared zone lost their appeal against the ban in a late court sitting in Sydney last night.
The challenge was launched on Wednesday by the men — Dan Jones, Paddy Gibson, Dan Robbins and Tim Davis-Frank — who claimed the ban was unconstitutional. Their lawyer, Geoff Kennett, last night argued before three justices of the NSW Court of Appeal that theban was an unconstitutional restriction of political communication.
Mr Kennett argued the NSW police’s black list — aimed at excluding troublemakers from APEC security zones during the summit – – went beyond the powers of the NSW Parliament.
He invoked key constitutional cases relating to the late former New Zealand prime minister David Lange and duck hunters in Victoria. However, one of Mr Kennett’s great difficulties, according to presiding judge Margaret Beazley, who ended proceedings before hearing from the defendants, was “that this case was not a strong one”.
The justices held that the banning of a limited number of potentially dangerous people from a protest, in a limited area, for a limited amount of time, served the legitimate end of responsible government.
“The summons is dismissed with costs,” Justice Beazley said.
Lawyers for the defendants, the NSW and federal attorney- generals, told the court they would not be seeking costs.
The four men are part of a larger group banned from joining any protests in Sydney’s CBD during APEC leaders’ week because of allegedly unruly behaviour at demonstrations accompanying the G20 forum in Melbourne last year.
The court’s decision came after a convoy of people travelling to Sydney for this weekend’s APEC protests was pulled over by police and the vehicles searched for drugs soon after they crossed the NSW border. The convoy of two cars and a minibus, bringing about 20 members of the Socialist Party from Melbourne, was stopped at the town of Tarcutta, near Wagga Wagga.
Earlier this week, the party was named in the NSW Supreme Court as one of the groups intending to take part in Saturday’s protest, where, the court was told, NSW police expect “a full-scale riot is probable”.
Stephen Jolly, a socialist councillor for the city of Yarra in central Melbourne, said about 10 police cars and 30 police officers had forced the vehicles to pull over. The occupants were asked to leave their cars and stand beside the road for several hours.
“They were doing a drug search, they have a dog. They have said it’s APEC-related,” Mr Jolly said. “They wanted to know where we are staying in Sydney, they wanted to know what we are going to be doing by way of APEC activities. It’s unexpected, but I guess you have to expect the unexpected these days.”
Socialist Party national organiser Anthony Main said police had identified themselves as “APEC investigators” but were not acting under the special powers granted by the NSW Government for the duration of the APEC summit, which allow police to detain suspects with no guarantee of bail.
NSW police were unable to comment about the incident lastnight.