Civil liberties groups say bail conditions imposed on Sydney climate change activists are usually reserved for bikie gang members

This article is more than 11 months old

This article is more than 11 months old

Climate change protesters arrested for obstructing traffic have been given “absurd” bail conditions that ban them from “going near” or contacting members of Extinction Rebellion, which civil liberties groups say infringes on freedom of political communication.

On Monday, 30 people – including former federal Greens senator Scott Ludlam – were arrested in Sydney while calling for government action on the climate emergency.

Ludlam told Australian Associated Press that New South Wales police gave him a “wild” set of bail conditions that banned him from coming within 2km of the Sydney CBD or associating with Extinction Rebellion events.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former Greens senator Scott Ludlam is arrested at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Sydney on 7 October. His bail conditions prevent him from coming within 2km of the Sydney CBD. Photograph: Richard Milnes/REX/Shutterstock

Guardian Australia has obtained arrest documents from other protesters with similar but harsher conditions.

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“[You are] not to go near, or contact or try to go near or contact (except through a legal representative) any members of the group ‘Extinction Rebellion’,” the conditions say. “[You are] not to enter the Sydney City CBD or not go within 2km radius of the Sydney Town Hall.”

Not all arrested protesters have been given these bail conditions.

The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Pauline Wright, labelled the conditions “patently unreasonable”, “absurd” and likely unlawful under the constitution. She said the ban was so broad and unclear it would affect thousands of people.

“There would be many thousands of members of Extinction Rebellion and you would not necessarily know who those members were,” she said. “It is impossible for police to enforce. How are they going to know who is a member of the group? It’s not like they have paid-up members with membership lists. It’s just a political affiliation of a group of people with similar ideas.”

Wright said similar bail conditions were usually reserved for members of bikie gangs, not political or social groups.

“It offends against the right of freedom of political expression that’s been implied in the constitution,” Wright said.

According to a map provided by NSW police in arrest documents, the 2km exclusion zone includes Central Station and parts of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. One protester was told to attend the Downing Centre court, but that court falls within their exclusion zone.

“It is likely to affect people’s ability to go about their lawful business, study and earn a living,” Wright said. “How can you go to court? You are going to the Downing Centre local court to answer the charges, but you are not allowed to be in that area. It is an absurd condition, it will be challenged and I have faith in the courts that they will make a sensible decision.”

On Wednesday, NSW Greens senator David Shoebridge said the bail conditions were so extreme police “knew they would be thrown out of court”. Many protestors who challenged their bail conditions in court had them removed.

“It’s not only unusual, but it is very clearly politically motivated,” he said.

An arrested protester, Lily Campbell, said she was held for 27 hours, and refused food for 17 hours, as the police tried to convince her to sign the bail conditions.

She also alleged wardens made veiled threats of violence.

“The warden in the jail that I was sent to called us ‘fuckwits’ and said that if his children did this, he would beat them.”

“The magistrate has now released me with no bail conditions whatsoever, because I have been arrested and charged with a minor charge of refusing to comply with a police instruction.”

In arrest documents, NSW police determined that protesters “if released from custody, will endanger the safety of victims, individuals or the community [and] interfere with witnesses or evidence”.

On Wednesday, Ludlam told Guardian Australia that if the government wanted to stop climate protesters, they should take action on policy.

“The people [arrested] are very well aware that if you are disrupting traffic that will invoke a police response. People are not surprised to hear these are arrestable offences.

“The question really is, if the government wants us to stop – whether that is the school kids or people doing banner drops – they have a very simple and clear path to do that.

“Nobody is doing this for fun. We are doing it for a purpose, and that is for the government to snap out of it.”

Ludlam said he had applied to have two of his bail conditions struck out, which would be heard by a judge tomorrow.

Also on Wednesday on Channel 10’s Studio 10 program, TV host Kerri-Anne Kennerley called for Extinction Rebellion protesters to be “used as speed bumps”.

“The guy hanging from the Story Bridge [in Brisbane]. Why send emergency services?” she said. “Nobody should do anything, and you just put little witches’ hats around them, or use them as a speed bump.

“Put them in jail, forget to feed them.” She later said she was joking.

In July, Queensland police were criticised for bail conditions they gave to four French journalists, which banned them from going within 20km of the Adani Carmichael coalmine.

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Last week, the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, said disruptive Extinction Rebellion protesters should have their welfare cut, face mandatory jail sentences and that “people should take these names, and the photos of these people, and distribute them as far and wide as we can so that we shame these people”.

Wright said this had influenced the harsh treatment of protesters.

“I think NSW police have drunk the government Kool-Aid in that rhetoric,” she said. “Where there is a legitimate political issue such as seeking action on climate change, protesters shouldn’t be seen to be forfeiting their democratic rights including freedom of association, freedom of movement and the implied right to freedom of political expression.”

In 2017, Tasmania lost a high court case that found some environmental protests are protected under the constitutional implied freedom of political communication.

In that case, Greens founder Bob Brown had been arrested while filming an anti-logging video, and the court found the state’s anti-protest laws went too far.

NSW police told Guardian Australia: “We don’t comment on individual bail conditions.”