Hannah Thomas, a lawyer and the Greens candidate for Grayndler at the last Federal election.

 

If you engage in peaceful protest, you can be guaranteed to be dealt with, just like Hannah was, with all the rigour and alleged brutality NSW police can muster.

9 July 2025

ALAN HAYES

 

ACCORDING to NSW Police propaganda, crime rates have decreased. They maintain that they have targeted violent crime and property crime with a significant focus on robbery and alcohol related crime – conducting operations that targeted hot spot locations and repeat offenders. Overall, the police claim their efforts have seen a reduction in crime and that offenders have been brought to justice.

 

Yet in NSW, violent crime and especially crime against women is surging – on the Central Coast violent crime has dramatically surged upwards by 6.7 percent.

 

The most recent NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) crime data shows the growth in violent offences accelerating in the greater Sydney area, which includes the Central Coast, over the past two years.

 

In the Sydney metropolitan area, Blacktown has endured a staggering 10% increase in violent crime per year over the past two years, outer south-western Sydney 5.6%, and the south-west 4.5%. Violent crime has also dramatically accelerated in Sutherland — up nearly 10% a year.

 

Although there’s been a long-term rise in violent crime in the state that far predates the Minns government, the fact is that violent crime is still out of control. So, while organised crime gangs might feel free to butcher one another in public, and violence against women may be rising, what is really being done to combat the problem? Distributing extra tins of Kiwi black shoe polish to police, to heighten the shine on their Magnum Strike Force leather boots, and introducing more Draconian laws is not the answer – nor is police backslapping about catching a P plater going 10 kilometres over the speed limit or rolling up three cars deep for a domestic disturbance. Respect, and community support, starts with grass-roots policing – not dystopian control.

 

A failure to act

 

A Grapevine reader, who asked to remain anonymous because of their fear of police reprisal, said that some months ago they were involved in a road rage incident. While at traffic lights, they had beeped the car in front of them to move on when the lights had turned green, because the vehicle  had remained stationary. The driver of the offending vehicle then got out of his car and punched the ‘beeper’ through his open window – “he kept trying to open the door to give me another one”, the victim said.

 

The entire road incident was caught on dashcam, and, like a good little citizen, the ‘beeper’ called triple zero.

 

The triple zero response was disconcerting! He was told by the triple zero operator that they were too busy to deal with such trivial matters and suggested that the victim drive to the nearest police station to make a report.

 

It beggars belief that a violent assault was deemed to be insignificant. This cavalier attitude of the police emergency centre begs another question: why aren’t they taking violent crime more seriously? Does someone have to be shot dead first?

 

The victim subsequently attended a police station and made the report, providing the following evidence to police: registration of the assailant’s motor vehicle, dash cam footage, full perfect 4k image of the assailant’s face, without obstruction, and the black eye he suffered.

 

“I was expecting that the police would be paying the person who assaulted me a visit within a day or two of the road rage incident,” the victim said.

 

“It's now been four months and nothing.

 

“When I email the officer, who took the report, he always replies with some sad excuse, like investigations are ongoing."

 

“I just know the clock is ticking down to the final excuse - your case has been closed due to a lack of evidence.

 

“I'm now more annoyed with the police than I am at the champion who raged because I beeped at him at a green light.

 

“So much for the police protecting NSW citizens! It seems that only the Mr Big criminals are in their sights.”

 

But this offhanded attitude by the NSW Police has become increasingly more common – a number of other citizens have also informed the Grapevine that they have been victims of threats and intimidation – yet there was no action by police, leaving innocent people disillusioned with the government’s ability to curb violent crime.

 

The irony, of course, is that if you engage in peaceful protest against the atrocity of the genocide being systematically carried out by the State of Israel against Palestinians living in Gaza, you can be guaranteed to be dealt with by all the rigour and alleged brutality NSW police can muster. Why? Because law and order in NSW has related to expanding powers of police, particularly to protests and criminalising speech, rather than curbing actual violent crime.

 

A victim of draconian boot-kicking

 

For months, genocide law scholars, international legal experts and human rights groups have agreed that the Netanyahu regime is engaged in genocide in Gaza. Despite criticisms of Israel’s actions, threats of country-level sanctions and sanctions against some Israeli individuals, most Western countries — including Australia — have steadfastly refused to use the word.

 

The result of that silence appears to have been to encourage Netanyahu to accelerate his genocide — and make it still more blatant.

 

There is no dispute that early on Saturday, 7 October 2023, there was a surprise attack on Israel by a group called Hamas. There is also no dispute that Israel retaliated with absolute force, but that force has now become a desire to obliterate an entire country. Is it little wonder that Palestinians living in Australia would feel the need to protest against such ethnic cleansing - to do so peacefully is now illegal in NSW.

 

So, it was, that Gaza protesters, who said they were peacefully protesting copped a beating, while criminals continue to run amuk in the suburbs of Greater Sydney.

 

The injuries sustained by Hannah Thomas, a former Greens candidate for the seat of Grayndler at the last Federal election, at,  according to her, a peaceful protest at Belmore, is just the latest event in the crackdown on the right to protest.

 

Ms Thomas was one of roughly 60 people outside a manufacturing facility in Belmore during an "unauthorised" protest, according to NSW Police.

 

The protesters allege the facility, which they were protesting outside of, was supplying components used in a type of jet flown by the Israel Defence Force. The company, SEC Plating, denied these claims.

 

According to NSW Police, after two move-on directions were issued to those at the protest, including Ms Thomas, the 35-year-old was subsequently arrested for "allegedly failing to comply".

 

Videos of the protest show a woman being dragged away from the group of protesters by a police office before falling to the ground in front of an officer.

 

In the same video, officers can be heard saying, "Get up now", with a woman replying, "I'm trying".

 

Ms Thomas was left with her right eye swollen shut, blood streaming down her cheeks. Yet it was only after the alleged brutality of the incident had been continually reported by the media, NSW Police deemed it necessary to request Ms Thomas’ medical records and declare the alleged heavy-handedness by police a critical incident.

 

Greens MP and spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said: "It concerns me deeply that the police, in announcing the critical incident, have referred to the protest at Belmore [as] 'unauthorised'.

 

"It's important to remember people do not need authorisation to hold a protest. To do so would mean we really do live in a police state."

 

Speaking from her hospital bed after the incident, Ms Thomas had clear culprits in mind: "I look like this now because of [New South Wales Premier] Chris Minns and [New South Wales police minister] Yasmin Catley and their draconian anti-protest laws and their attempts to demonise protesters, especially protesters for Palestine. They’ve emboldened the police to crack down with extreme violence and brutality, and they were warned that those laws would lead to this outcome.

 

"I was engaged in peaceful protests and my interactions with NSW Police have left me potentially without vision in my right eye permanently," Ms Thomas said.

 

Thomas and four others are the only persons, so far, to face legal sanctions for allegedly hindering or resisting a police officer and refusing to comply with a direction to disperse.

 

But will Hannah Thomas receive justice for her injuries? Police investigating police is a stark reminder of a dark past in NSW – when justice was swept under the carpet.

 

Draconian crackdown isn’t new

 

Peaceful protests have made the world a better place. Protest helped end slavery and child labour, delivered worker’s rights and equal rights, delivered better air and water quality and protection of the planet's most iconic landscapes.

 

In Australia protests saved the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree Rainforest, Kakadu, the Tasmanian Wilderness, Fraser Island and the many great national parks that have paved the way for our multi-billion dollar tourism industry.

 

It was peaceful protesting by the Central Coast Community that save the Region's major drinking water catchment from destruction by coal seam gas mining and longwall coal mining.

 

But the crackdown on the right to protest peacefully wasn’t an innovation of the current government, it’s been stifled before to suppress people's rights by targeted groups wanting to implement change.

 

The Mike Baird Liberal government allegedly pandered to the demands of the mining industry by introducing legislation to make protesting about environmental destruction caused by coal and coal seam gas miners illegal. The Baird then government handed even more power to the police, requiring a special permit - a Form 1 permit application - to be completed when protesting against coal and gas mining companies or associated facilities before a protest could take place.

 

In Mike Baird's world, the Great Barrier Reef would have been dotted with oil rigs and tankers, the Franklin River would have been dammed, the Daintree Rainforest would have been wiped out, and Fraser Island would have disappeared from sand mining.

 

Mike Baird’s anti-protest mining laws allowed police to arrest anyone carrying or operating anything the police might think could be  used in a protest. Police can arrest you and confiscate and destroy your car, for example, if they thought it would be used to disrupt business in a protest.

 

The fines imposed on protesters for opposing illegal mining activity were far greater than penalties imposed on mining companies for operating illegally.

 

Under Baird’s draconian laws, protesters could even be sent to jail for up to seven years for peacefully standing up for what they believed was right.

 

When Rising Tide was peacefully protesting at the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle, the Minns government allegedly seized upon this legislation to have NSW Police arrest 170 people.

 

In the weeks leading up to the protest, police successfully opposed Rising Tide’s Form 1 permit application (allowing them to protest), thereby opening up the protesters to potential criminal liability for their peaceful demonstration. The Minns Government also tried to impose an exclusion zone over the Port of Newcastle to prevent protests in that area altogether, but this was struck down by the Supreme Court.

 

The Form 1 permit system was implemented to facilitate safe and peaceful demonstrations. The Form 1 system, under Part 4 of the Summary Offences Act 1988 (NSW), requires protest organisers to provide written notice to the Police Commissioner of their intention to hold a public assembly, to secure authorisation and protection from certain offences.

 

It seemed that the NSW Police were not interested in legal and peaceful demonstrations, but were more interested in using the system to stifle dissent by creating legal and procedural barriers that disproportionately target some voices over others. Recently, police have used the system to block or restrict protests, such as pro-Palestinian demonstrations, by citing vague public safety concerns.

 

The Human Rights Law Centre is calling for the Form 1 system to be abolished, arguing that it gives police excessive power to suppress peaceful protests.

 

David Mejia-Canales, Senior Lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said: “The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. No one should have to seek permission from police to exercise this right.

 

“The NSW Police are weaponising the Form 1 permit system to shut down people’s freedom of speech and dissent. This system is not just a threat to protestors — it’s a threat to all of us and to our democracy. It must be scrapped.

 

“These permits give police the power to authorise what we can say, when we can say it, and how we can say it. This broken system is punishing peaceful protesters instead of protecting our rights.

 

“While the climate emergency worsens, it says everything that the Minns Government is criminalising people protesting for a better planet rather than taking decisive action towards a climate-safe future.”

 

Where have all the flowers gone … long time passing?

 

Just like the knee-jerk laws that have been introduced before, the current State Government’s draconian approach to law enforcement is not solving crime.

 

The drive-by shootings, affecting innocent people still continue; knife crime and street gangs butchering each other continues apace, despite ‘wanding’ laws being introduced - homicide detectives late last month charged two teenagers with the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old man; and domestic violence and sexual assault have also seen rapid growth.

 

The increase in violent crime in NSW stands in contrast to Minns’ high level of performativity over violence. Remember, however, his reported performance on violence during the so-called Dural caravan hoax, which was variously reported by the media that the premier knew from police very early on was likely to be a hoax. It was also reported that Minns politically milked the Dural event for all it was worth, quickly labelling it as “terrorism” and a potential anti-Semitic mass-casualty event. Not to miss an opportunity, the Premier then rushed draconian hate speech laws through the NSW Parliament before the nature of the hoax was publicly revealed, and continued to claim the hoax justified the laws afterwards.

 

Let’s not also forget that Minns also refused to give evidence to a NSW upper house inquiry into how he exploited the Dural caravan hoax. He initially refused to allow his staff to attend the inquiry, before finally backing down in the face of threats of arrest.

 

The Minns Government’s introduction of tougher law and order in NSW is not reducing actual violent crime rates, but has instead expanded the powers of police - a slippery slope that gives police discretion to silence dissent and criminalise free-speech, which could well turn NSW into a police state.

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