Victorian stop-and-search police powers in constitutional federal court challenge
Douglas Smith
The assistant commissioner for Victoria police is set to be cross-examined in federal court this morning as a constitutional challenge by a trio of activists looks at whether a declaration of Melbourne’s CBD as a designated area for four months was legal.
It is the second day of a two-day hearing. Constitutional arguments were laid out by counsel from both sides yesterday, focusing on how the implied freedom of political communication can be interpreted by police; and whether a protester wearing face-coverings should be considered a form of “political expression” or if they may be concealing their identity to commit a crime.
Under the declaration initiated from the Controlled Weapons Act, which was revoked four months early on 9 January, police, including protective service officers, were allowed to stop and search anyone without a warrant if they were within the designated area.
Police were also able to require police to remove face-coverings – regardless of whether they were being worn for political or health purposes, such as to protect against the effects of crowd-control substances, such as pepper spray.
Key events
Coalition shadow minister maintains ‘serious concerns’ with hate speech legislation
Paul Scarr, the shadow minister for multicultural affairs, is maintaining the Coalition line that there has not been enough time to evaluate hate speech and gun control legislation put forward by the Albanese government.
Scarr is speaking to RN Breakfast, where he has maintained there was no consultation between Labor and the opposition, classifying the legislation as “Labor’s bill” and said the timeline was “totally unacceptable”. He said:
We’ve got serious concerns with respect to whether or not the bill meets its objective …
It really is concerning that we’re in this stage where we’re less than one business day away from parliament coming together and these serious concerns persist. We’re in a situation where we’re dealing with such a significant piece of legislation, complicated legislation, legislation which deals with the raft of matters which are contained in this one monster omnibus bill, which is a totally inappropriate way to address this situation.
Martin Farrer
‘Profound hurt’: South Australian Jewish community leader criticises Adelaide festival board’s about-face
Back to the Adelaide festival controversy: a leader of the South Australian Jewish community, Norman Schueler, has hit out at the decision to invite Randa Abdel-Fattah back to the festival’s writers’ week next year.
He told the Adelaide Advertiser his community was “profoundly hurt” and “in total disbelief” over the author’s invitation to next year’s writers’ week only six days after she was barred from this year’s event because of “cultural sensitivity”.
“I believe the board has acted with unconscionable conduct, it has pandered to a vociferous minority … it’s run scared into the arms of self-righteous persons [and] trashed the reputation of the festival,” he said.
“The previous board acted with courage and moral clarity.
“I do not believe the board has the right to apologise on our behalf, our communities have been profoundly hurt.”
Great Ocean Road rain ‘quite extraordinary and terrifying’
Kristy McBain, the federal emergency services minister, said the rain in Victoria was “quite extraordinary”. She told RN Breakfast:
What we saw yesterday afternoon on the Great Ocean Road was quite extraordinary and terrifying for the people that have been caught up in it. They had 170mm of rain in a six-hour period. That’s the highest of any 24-hour period since site records began there in the year 2000.
So that was an extraordinary amount of rain coming off the mountains there. There are now emergency relief centres open in Lorne and Apollo Bay. It’s obviously still a pretty dangerous situation, and I urge anyone in the area to closely listen to advice from authorities.
Local councillor says flash flooding in Victoria a ‘big shock’
Leon Walker, a councillor for the Surf Coast Shire, spoke to ABC News this morning after hundreds of people were evacuated due to severe flash flooding along the Wye River in Victoria.
A thunderstorm dropped more than 170mm of rain on the Lorne area in Victoria’s south-west coast on Thursday, sweeping cars away as flood waters surged through the area.
Walker said everyone in the area is safe, but said it would take time for the area to clean up.
It was a big shock, it happened very quickly to Lorne.
The amount of rain and water that we had come through is astounding to be honest. … We’re talking cars washed out to sea.
Martin Farrer
Indie band Pulp will play Adelaide festival after all
The fallout from the Adelaide festival fiasco continues with an overnight statement from the indie band Pulp that they will be playing at the event next month.
The British band had initially told the organisers they were joining the boycott of the event over the “dreadful” barring of Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah from the Adelaide writers’ week.
At the organisers’ request, the band delayed their announcement of the boycott while the festival tried to resolve the crisis.
But after the apology to Abdel-Fattah, the band is back on board.
Frontman Jarvis Cocker said on Instagram last night that he was happy that the band was now “prepared to perform at the music festival once more”.
“This will be a free concert, open to anyone who respects the freedom of all voices to be heard. It will also be fun.”
Read our full story here:
Good morning, and happy Friday. Nick Visser here to take things over. Let’s get to it.
Douglas Smith
More on that stop-and-search hearing in Melbourne.
Counsel for the plaintiffs, Thomas Wood from the Human Rights Legal Centre, argued the declaration made by Victoria police was “invalid”.
He told the court yesterday:
The Act authorises, once a declaration is made, what can only be described as, ‘extraordinary powers’.
There are two that concern the interests of my client. They are search powers to search any person without forming any reasonable suspicions and without requiring a warrant, with the only condition being that that person being within the designated area.
And then there is what we’ve called a face-covering power, conferred by section 10ka (of the Act).
In court, counsel assisting for the Victorian government, Sarah Keating, said the state accepted that police requiring people to “remove a face-covering in some instances can burden political communication”, but contended that the “burden is indirect”, and was not “significant”.
The challenge was brought on by Invasion Day community organiser, Tarneen Onus Browne, environmental activist Benny Zable, and human rights advocate, David Hack, who was searched by police in Melbourne’s CBD on 7 December.
Victorian stop-and-search police powers in constitutional federal court challenge
Douglas Smith
The assistant commissioner for Victoria police is set to be cross-examined in federal court this morning as a constitutional challenge by a trio of activists looks at whether a declaration of Melbourne’s CBD as a designated area for four months was legal.
It is the second day of a two-day hearing. Constitutional arguments were laid out by counsel from both sides yesterday, focusing on how the implied freedom of political communication can be interpreted by police; and whether a protester wearing face-coverings should be considered a form of “political expression” or if they may be concealing their identity to commit a crime.
Under the declaration initiated from the Controlled Weapons Act, which was revoked four months early on 9 January, police, including protective service officers, were allowed to stop and search anyone without a warrant if they were within the designated area.
Police were also able to require police to remove face-coverings – regardless of whether they were being worn for political or health purposes, such as to protect against the effects of crowd-control substances, such as pepper spray.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer to get the day started and then Nick Visser will take the news baton.
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