Amendment seeking a balance between the right to peaceful protest with the need to ensure public safety.

The Inclosed Lands, Crimes and Law Enforcement Amendment (Interference) Act 2016 (Inclosed Lands Act) received assent on 22 March 2016. It is aimed at seeking a balance between the right to peaceful protest with the need to ensure public safety. The Inclosed Land Act:

• creates an aggravated form of the offence of unlawful entry on inclosed lands, increasing the penalty from $550 to $5,500. This maximum penalty relates to land on which a business being conducted and where the offender interferes with the conduct of the business or does anything that gives rise to a serious risk;
• gives additional search and seizure powers where a police officer suspects on reasonable grounds that a person has anything that is intended to be used to lock-on or secure a person to any plant, equipment or structure for the purpose of interfering with the conduct of a business or undertaking and that is likely to be used in a manner that will give rise to a serious risk to the safety of any person; and
• removes limitations on the exercise of police powers to give directions in public places to prevent obstructions of persons or traffic in the case of demonstrations, protests, processions or organised assemblies.

Kate Swain