A New South Wales Court has said a 75-year-old man's protest sign referring to the then prime minister Tony Abbott as a "c∀nt" is not in breach of the state's Summary Offences Act (SOA).

Danny Lim, a well-known Sydney character, was spotted in Edgecliffe in August 2015 wearing a sandwich sign that said on the front:

PEACE SMILE PEOPLE CAN CHANGE “TONY YOU C∀N’T..” LIAR, HEARTLESS, CRUEL PEACE BE WITH YOU

And on the back it said:

TRICKY LYING TONY YOU C∀N’T SCREW EDUCATION HEALTH, JOBS & THE ENVIRONMENT CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S FUTURE SMILE

The A in both instances was upside down. He was snapped by the Daily Telegraph wearing the sign as he talked to then communications minister Malcolm Turnbull.

It was just weeks before Tony Abbott was ousted as prime minister by Turnbull.



For the sign, Lim was given a $500 fine for offensive manner in a public place under the SOA, a law used to target people using offensive language in public in New South Wales. A fund was soon set up to pay the fine, but Lim refused and fought the case in the court.

He lost the case in February 2016. The magistrate found it to be a "straightforward case" that a reasonable person would have been offended because the word was used in reference to the prime minister of the day, but did not say why a reasonable person would be offended by it.