NSW Supreme Court rules planned Black Lives Matter protest unlawful
The NSW Supreme Court has ruled the planned Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney tomorrow should not go ahead due to COVID-19 public health orders around public gatherings.
The ruling follows NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the NSW Police’s application to the Supreme Court to make tomorrow’s planned protest illegal.
Ms Berejiklian initially said she won’t stifle anybody’s right to protest, insisting demonstrations be done in a COVID safe way, but no limit was placed on the gathering.
Justice Desmond Fagan of the NSW Supreme Court said the decision weighed up free speech and assembly against that of public health interest.
Justice Fagan said it was an “unreasonable proposition” to allow a protest to go ahead when Australians had already made many sacrifices to follow COVID-19 restrictions.
The protest planned on Saturday for the CBD, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, had initially been given the all-clear by state politicians and police.
Ms Berejiklian says the protest organisers originally put forward a different application, but it grew to thousands of people.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet admitted on Ben Fordham Live this morning that the protest should not go ahead.
Image: Nine News