Queensland’s ‘from the river to the sea’ laws likened to Bjelke-Petersen era anti-protest regime

Health minister Tim Nicholls corrects claim alleged Bondi terror attack gunman Naveed Akram used controversial phrase, as laws roundly criticised

Police arresting pro-Palestinian protesters for using the phrase “from the river to the sea” had “all the hallmarks of an authoritarian police state”, according to a Greens MP, amid widespread backlash against Queensland’s new hate speech laws.

The controversial laws went into effect yesterday after passing a vote in parliament last week.

They ban the slogans “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”, and make expressing or publishing them punishable for up to two years in prison if doing so would “menace, harass or offend”.

Greens MP Michael Berkman said arrests under these laws had “all the hallmarks of an authoritarian police state, with the police all too happy to act as the thought police on behalf of the LNP state government”.

The progressive Jewish Council of Australia said the term “intifada” had been “associated with violent actions in some historical contexts”, but this was “one interpretation of the term, not its inherent or exclusive meaning”. It said the phrase “from the river to the sea” was “also often erroneously invoked as hateful”.

The deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, defended the new laws and the arrests, saying “the law’s the law”.

“Laws are put in place. People unfortunately break the laws, and they’re held accountable for those laws,” he said.

“You abide by the laws. If you don’t obey the laws, you have a chance of being charged. And as those matters are before the court, I’m not going to provide any more comment on those.”

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Several groups compared arrests under the new laws to those made under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government, particularly its 1977 ban on all protest marches and declaration of a state of emergency during a tour of the state by an all-white rugby team from apartheid South Africa.

Labor shadow minister Shannon Fentiman said the government “wants to tell Queenslanders what they can and cannot say”.

“I think it’s pretty shocking for Queenslanders to wake up this morning and realise they live in a state where young people at a peaceful protest can get arrested for what they have on their T-shirts, or what they say at a protest. It really is very reminiscent of Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s days,” she said.

Students For Palestine Queensland convener Ella Gutteridge said “the real intent of these laws is to intimidate and silence peace activists”.

The organisers wouldn’t confirm if the group planned future rallies to challenge the laws, which ban two phrases when they “intimidate, harass or offend”.

But Connor Knight, another convener of the group, said there were “tens of thousands of people around Australia who are outraged”.

The National Union of Students also condemned the laws.

The NUS president, Felix Hughes, said arresting someone “for the words on their shirt should alarm everyone who cares about freedom of speech in Australia”.

A spokesperson for the Queensland police said: “Police presence is standard at any protest to manage any road closures, to provide assistance, or direction where required to ensure public and community safety. As the matter is now before the court it would be inappropriate to comment further.”

The criticism comes as the state’s health minister, Tim Nicholls, corrected a claim he made at a press conference about alleged Bondi terror attack gunman Naveed Akram.

When asked about the state’s new so-called Bondi laws on Thursday, Nicholls said: “We made it abundantly clear that we do not support the words and phrases that were used by the terrorists prior to the Bondi massacre and the incident that occurred there.”

When asked to provide evidence Akram had used the phrase, a spokesperson for Nicholls said the minister “misspoke”.

Police said a 33-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman were arrested on Wednesday for using the phrase “from the river to the sea”.

The man will appear in court next month, and the woman was given an adult caution.