Massively increased penalties intended to deter disruptive demonstrations like those by climate activists in Adelaide's CBD in recent days have themselves prompted protest from human rights and union groups, who say they threaten basic democratic principles.
In response to this week's wave of Extinction Rebellion demonstrations, the South Australian government has proposed changes to a state law relating to the obstruction of public spaces, including possible jail time and significantly higher fines for those found in breach.
On Thursday, four climate change protesters were arrested and charged with offences including property damage, after allegedly throwing paint at the Santos building.
Another person was arrested on Wednesday for obstructing a public place, after protesters — including a woman who abseiled down a rope from the Morphett Street bridge and was suspended above North Terrace — caused major delays to traffic.
Under an amendment to the state's Summary Offences Act backed by the SA government and opposition, anyone who "intentionally or recklessly engages in conduct that obstructs the free passage of a public place" would be potentially liable to jail time of up to three months, or a $50,000 maximum financial penalty.
Currently, there is no option of jail time for the offence, and the maximum fine is $750 — an amount that is 66 times smaller than what is now being proposed.
The law change was announced yesterday but has already passed parliament's House of Assembly with what Premier Peter Malinauskas described as "bipartisan support", without "any dissent" from the lower house crossbench.
Mr Malinauskas today defended the move, telling ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz that it is in response to a "pattern of behaviour where repeat offenders seem to be breaking the law with a degree of impunity".
"It hasn't completely passed the parliament, it's still got to go through the upper house, and no doubt the legislation will enjoy substantial scrutiny there," he said.
But the proposal has already generated a chorus of opposition from groups including Amnesty International Australia, Human Rights Watch and the Law Society of South Australia, as well as multiple trade unions.
"The premier was talking about this legislation targeting a pattern of behaviour, but what we can see looking at what got introduced yesterday is that it's not targeted, it's not specific," SA Unions Secretary Dale Beasley told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"This is really broad legislation in the way it's drafted … and there has been absolutely no time to properly understand how that breadth can impact not just unions but all of the community's rights to disrupt injustice."
That sentiment was shared by Australian Education Union SA branch secretary Andrew Gohl, who said that while concern was "broadly felt", consultation had been minimal and the full implications remained unclear.
"Protesting is part of a democratic exercise to influence the public and the government," he said.
"For a union that occasionally closes off North Terrace, or part of the union movement that marches on King William Street and closes off King William Street, then is that public inconvenience?
"Is that causing disruption to business and does therefore the legislation capture that activity if someone makes a complaint along those lines?"
Amnesty International Australia campaigner Nikita White condemned moves to imprison or impose "thousands of dollars in fines" on "peaceful protesters", and urged SA's upper house to reject a bill which, she said, would "unfairly restrict people exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly".
"These harsh penalties on those protesting peacefully are part of an unacceptable trend in Australia which has seen the right to protest stymied in recent years," she said in a statement.
"This crackdown on the right to protest means all our ability to fight for human rights and combat the climate crisis are under threat."
In response, Mr Malinauskas has vehemently rejected the criticisms, saying the law change would not undermine the basic principle of public protest.
"I, for one, would go down in a blaze of glory to make sure we preserve the right for people to exercise freedom of assembly, peaceful protest, to demonstrate against a government," he said.
"But this isn't protesting or demonstrating in a lawful way, this is doing it in a wholly unlawful way, in a way that compromises the safety … of others.
"When that starts to occur in a way that substantially compromises public convenience, the ability [of people] to be able to do their jobs, for our emergency service workers to be able to focus on theirs, then I think there's a need for government and the parliament to respond."
Mr Malinauskas said penalties had not increased since the 1990s, but that other states — including Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales — had recently made similar moves to those now being proposed in SA.
"The legislation that passed the lower house yesterday does not create any new offence of any description," he said.
"It actually just increases a potential penalty."
Mr Malinauskas said he had himself "marched against the Iraq War" and attended other demonstrations, "but in none of those instances was a $750 fine issued to anybody because it wasn't done in a way that was unlawful".
"It wasn't done with the extremist elements that we've seen Extinction Rebellion exercise — no-one was hanging themselves upside down from Morphett Street bridge in a way that resulted in people being unable to get to and from the Royal Adelaide Hospital," he said.
