Journalist Wendy Bacon reports that Inner West Labor has used their narrow majority to defeat a motion calling for repeal of NSW’s draconian anti-protest laws at the Inner West Council (IWC) meeting last week.

Inner West Councillor and Greens candidate for Balmain Kobi Shetty moved a motion calling for the Mayor Darcy Byrne to write to the Attorney General and Shadow Attorney General calling for the repeal of the laws and an end to heavy handed policing of protestors.

The New South Wales government has been ordered to pay out more than $18,000 after two police officers climbed a locked gate and trespassed on a northern rivers property owned by a woman they suspected was organising a protest in breach of Covid laws, the Guardian's Tasmin Rose reports. 

The NSW supreme court justice Robertson Wright found that the senior constables had violated the privacy of property owner Sanchia Romani, awarding her $18,334.69 in damages over the trespass. 

Josh Pallas, president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said the choice by officers to enter the property despite the signage “either demonstrates poor judgment” or “systemic failure on the part of NSW police” to teach officers about the law.

LGBTQ+ activists in Sydney, Australia will be allowed to protest outside the funeral of homophobic cardinal and convicted sex offender George Pell, following attempts by police to block their march, PinkNews' Joe Ali reports. 

NSW police sought to obtain a court order which would have stopped protestors from gathering, citing section 25 of the state’s Summary Offences Act, but have since announced it will not attempt to stop LGBTQ+ campaigners.

A dispute between NSW Police and LGBT activists over a rally coinciding with Cardinal George Pell's Sydney funeral has been resolved after the route of a peaceful march was altered, ABC's Jamie McKinnell reports. 

The group Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR), planned to hold a march from Hyde Park alongside St Mary's Cathedral on Thursday morning which prompted NSW Police to apply to the state's supreme court for an order to prohibit the event due to 'public safety concerns'. 

After discussion, Mr De Brennan, who was representing NSW Police, told the judge an "in principle agreement" for an alternative route had been reached, which went "up to College Street but not on it".

The late Cardinal, George Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic and one of the most powerful people in the Church, is set to be sent off into the great beyond on Thursday. This will be his second funeral, after the one he already had in the Vatican, presided over by Pope Francis, the Latch's Jack Revell reports. 

The Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR), is organising a “Pell Go to Hell” march to be held at the same time as his requiem mass on Thursday.

NSW Police sought a court order to prevent the protest from taking place, citing “safety concerns,” however they have since said that a compromise has been reached with the protesters. CARR’s march will now walk to College Street but not up it.

NSW police have backed away from an attempt to ban an LGBTQ+ campaign group from marching on the street outside George Pell’s funeral, ahead of the cardinal’s service at St Mary’s Cathedral on Thursday, The Guardian's Rafqa Touma reports. 

Instead, an “alternative route has been agreed,” barrister Sebastian De Brennan confirmed to the supreme court on Wednesday afternoon.

In a statement, the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Josh Pallas, said the NSW police court order was “not a genuine attempt to preserve public safety”.

“The application in the Supreme Court today to have the Community Action for Rainbow Rights (CARR) planned protest on Thursday declared unlawful by NSW Police is not a genuine attempt to preserve public safety. It’s motivated by a desire to prevent the memorial service following the death of Cardinal Pell being affected by protest activity.  In reality, this is a case of the NSW police trying to do tone-policing,” Josh Pallas, NSWCCL President, stated.

Bikie boss Nick Martin's murder at a speedway in Perth left police wanting evidence in the form of QR code check-in data from the contact tracing apps of 2,439 fans who attended the December 2020 race, Yahoo News reports. 

A government order requiring people to share information in case of a virus outbreak meant anyone who checked in that day left their name, phone number and arrival time through the SafeWA COVID-19 app or on paper.

Police issued an "order to produce" the details to the state Health Department two days after Martin was shot and killed.

Climate activist Deanne ‘Violet’ Coco was freed on Tuesday after spending 10 days in Silverwater Women’s Prison, seven of which were in isolation, City Hub's Wendy Bacon reports. 

Coco was the first person to receive a prison sentence under the new laws. Four other climate activists have been sentenced to prison for other protest offences in NSW this year. There are more than twenty other climate activists arrested under the new anti-protest laws who could also face time in prison.

More than 230 civil society organisations have joined together to condemn the sentencing of local climate defender Violet Coco in an effort coordinated by Counteract, Wage Peace and other grassroots activists, a diverse coalition of organisations have made known, via an open letter, that they not only condemn Coco’s prison sentence, but further the Perrottet government’s anti-protest regime, which led to this dramatic escalation in punishing nonviolent climate protest.

The signatories include the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW, the Human Rights Law Centre, the Maritime Union of Australia, the National Justice Project, Amnesty, Liberty Victoria, Extinction Rebellion, Pride in Protest and Free Gaza Australia.