The New South Wales police have been criticised for a “heavy-handed” midnight arrest and detention of a university student over a protest that allegedly “significantly interfered” with the Reserve Bank of Australia because its doors had to be temporarily locked.
Cherish Kuehlmann, 23, a student at the University of New South Wales, said she was woken up at about 12.30am on Saturday to the sound of “four or five” police officers “banging loudly” on the door of her unit in Eastlakes in Sydney’s inner south-east.
“I was a bit in shock,” she told Guardian Australia.
“I was in my pyjamas and I asked if I could put clothes on and they barged into the house, woke my housemate up, took my phone and keys, and took me downstairs.
“It was pretty embarrassing, in front of my neighbours. It was pretty outrageous.”
Kuehlmann was arrested and taken to a police station in Sydney, where she was charged with a single count of unlawful entry on to inclosed land after a protest held in Martin Place on Friday.
She said she was detained for “about four hours” before being released on strict bail conditions, including a ban on her travelling within two kilometres of Sydney’s town hall, which would stop her from attending another protest organised later this week.
Her arrest came after about 30 people marched into Martin Place on Friday to protest the cost of housing, bank profits and the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy.
“It was about student affordable housing and the housing crisis,” Kuehlmann said.
“The Commonwealth Bank just announced $5bn in profits directly off higher interest rates and [the Reserve Bank chair] Philip Lowe has said profit for the banks is good for us. Good for who?”
A police fact sheet seen by the Guardian alleges the group had not completed one of the “form one” notifications to police to authorise a public assembly, and that during the protest demonstrators entered the Commonwealth Bank where they began “shouting and protesting” while “using loudspeakers to spread their messages” for about five minutes.
Snap protest by uni students at Reserve Bank of Australia #RBA in central #Sydney over rising cost of living #nswpol #auspol pic.twitter.com/ZC8szMX18U
— Farid Y. Farid (@FaridYFarid) February 17, 2023
However, according to the fact sheet, the charge relates to their presence outside the RBA building. Police allege that after leaving the Commonwealth Bank the group “continued to chant, shout and scream” as they marched through Martin Place to the entrance of the RBA.
The police allege Kuehlmann and others then began “running towards the front door”, and when a security guard blocked them and shouted “that they were trespassing” Kuehlmann and other protesters “continued to force entry” but “kept getting pushed back”.
“Upon the front sliding doors to the RBA being shut and locked the group have remained immediately in the forecourt out the front of the premises front doors,” the document said.
Police said that while the protesters remained “outside the bank” the area was “still deemed to form part of the curtilage of the RBA”.
“Any form or protesting activities carried out in this area without approval is considered unlawful and a trespass on the RBA grounds,” the document said.
Kuehlmann said the group had been outside the building for a “maximum 10 minutes” and that the group had “walked to the door” of the bank before a security guard “pushed us back”.
But police alleged the protest resulted in the RBA “having to temporarily stop any form of access into the premises”, which they said “significantly interfered with the conduct and business of the RBA”.
After leaving the RBA, the group walked up to the front of the nearby NSW parliament when officers spoke to Kuehlmann. The police facts state she was “cautioned and spoken to in regards to her involvement in the alleged offence” by police and released.
Kuehlmann questioned why officers waited until the middle of the night to arrest her “when I complied with them at the protest”.
The arrest comes amid increasing concern from political activists and civil liberties groups about the use of police powers against protest groups.
New laws passed by the NSW government last year in the wake of a series of climate protests introduced tough new penalties for activists who blocked roads, bridges and tunnels. Violet Coco, a 32-year-old climate activist, was handed a 15-month jail sentence for a protest that blocked traffic on Sydney’s Harbour Bridge last year.
While Kuehlmann’s arrest did not invoke the new laws, the Greens MP Cate Faehrmann called it “heavy-handed”, and said the crackdown on protests had sent “a bipartisan signal to the police to go hard on peaceful protesters”.
“Labor teaming up with the government to pass draconian protest laws has sent a bipartisan signal to the police to go hard on peaceful protesters,” she said.
“Introducing laws to protect peaceful protest will be one of the first things the Green will do in the next parliament.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the NSW police said police had attended the protest “in relation to unauthorised protest activity” but would not comment further because the case was before the courts.
