A Queensland court has upheld the rights of civil liberties protesters to march through the streets of Brisbane on Wednesday morning, after the LNP-led city council attempted to refuse authorisation because it would disrupt traffic.

The Queensland chief magistrate, Terry Gardiner, ruled that he was not satisfied the council’s bid to refuse permission on grounds the protest would cause significant public disturbance “was reasonable … in a democratic society”.

The march was organised by the Brisbane Greens councillor Jonathan Sri in response to proposed state laws and other attempts to crack down on the right to peaceful protest. The court heard the demonstration will be on the roadway for about 15 minutes between the Queen Street Mall and the state parliament.

Sri told the Brisbane magistrates court the case brought by the LNP council was “politically motivated”, citing social media posts by the lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, that he would not let residents “fall victim to green extremists” trying to disrupt their lives.

“It’s essentially a protest about the right to protest,” Sri told the court.

Brisbane city councillor Jonathan Sri leaves the Brisbane magistrates court on Tuesday. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

“We’ve seen both the premier and the lord mayor use terms like ‘extremists’ and ‘dangerous’. We have a broad political context at the moment where there is political pressure to wind back or draw down that right to peaceful protest.”



“The (right to peaceful protest) was introduced after the Bjelke-Petersen era where for decades the National party government had made a habit of using the excuse of traffic disruption to suppress peaceful protest, any form of protest that was politically damaging for the National party.”

The council’s lawyer, Kevin Cartledge, told the court the protest would affect “give or take 100” bus services and could cause traffic delays lasting until about 10.30am.

“Council does not oppose the holding of this or any other assembly,” Cartledge said. “It’s a common law right and it’s enshrined in the act. Council’s position is not to oppose on the basis of any political issues ... it is entirely based on the impacts the assembly will have on the public.”

Sri told the court that council’s claims about the traffic disruptions were “overstated and could be mitigated” and that the march would be on the roadway for about 1km.

Sri also argued that the “impacts to traffic should not in-and of-themselves be considered significant justification to suppress a peaceful protest”.

He said that when Queensland passed the peaceful assembly act, it was noted during debate that it would allow demonstrations that would cause peak-hour traffic disruption in the CBD.

“The act intended to make a very, very high threshold so that power could not be misused and abused,” Sri told the court.

Under the act, a lawful assembly can be held by providing written notice to the police and the relevant local authority, in this case the Brisbane City Council.

Either can seek an order from a magistrate prohibiting an assembly. They must first hold a mediation session. The council had attempted in mediation to have protesters take a different route, or for the protest to start at 9.30am, after peak hour.

This week, Schrinner told News Corp he wanted the state government to amend the law, allowing the city authority to outright refuse protests without having to undertake mediation.

Outside the court, Sri said he was happy with the decision.

“It is not up to governments to decide what people get to protest about, or where we get to do it” he said.