NSW backs Queensland in High Court challenge to protest slogan bans

New South Wales has joined Queensland’s defence of laws banning two pro-Palestinian slogans when they are used to menace or offend. Activists are challenging the laws in the High Court, arguing they restrict the implied constitutional right to political communication; the case could influence whether similar restrictions are adopted elsewhere in Australia.

Queensland introduced the bans in March, and more than 30 people have since been charged, including four of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs say neither phrase has a fixed meaning or is inherently antisemitic or a call to violence; Queensland wants the charges returned to a magistrates’ court and the rest of the case dismissed. NSW Premier Chris Minns has said any similar ban would depend on the High Court outcome, after an earlier NSW protest law was invalidated by the Court of Appeal.