NSW Premier Chris Minns has come under criticism as he has continued to call for the limiting of protest rights in NSW. Recently Amnesty International Australia have criticised his calls to ban Palestine protests outside places of worship.

This call first came from Jillian Segal, the Antisemitism special envoy appointed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who described the Palestine rallies as "intimidatory".

After the Adass Israel synagogue was firebombed, Anthony Albanese said he “cannot conceive of any reason, apart from creating division in our community, of why someone would want to hold a demonstration outside a place of worship”.

In response to this a variety of individuals and groups have criticised this statement, such as survivors of clergy abuse.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties said if Labor prevents people from “exercising their right to peacefully protest”, it increases the risk of “disruptive and potentially violent demonstrations”.

NSWCCL said laws already exist to ensure that protest “does not unduly infringe on the rights of others”. Racial vilification and discrimination on grounds of race, religion, disability, sex, sexuality, gender and age are already illegal under the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977. Additionally, the Crimes Act 1900 already makes it an offence to publicly threaten or incite racial or religious violence.

NSWCCL said laws banning protests outside of religious institutions would “unduly silence freedom of speech and curtail the right to protest and assembly”, and outlined that religious institutions “exercise significant” political power and “this makes them a legitimate site of protest in a democratic society”.

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