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     Australian assembly

This page considers the evolution of Australian assembly regimes - gatherings in public and private places, including street marches, indoor protest meetings, pickets and demonstrations.

     introduction

In Australia, as in the UK, freedom of assembly - including an implicit right to demonstrate - is guaranteed through the absence of formal restrictions.

There are no express rights of assembly and association in the federal constitution or - with the exeception of the Queensland Peaceful Assembly Act 1992 - in state/territory legal codes. The rights are instead residual, limited to whatever is not proscribed by statute or common law.

Restrictions on freedom of assembly have reflected the trajectory of restraints in English law, with

• adoption of the English 1817 Riot Act and Seditious Meetings Act in the various colonial criminal codes
• amendment of those codes during large-scale reforms around the turn of last century (eg abolition in NSW during 1900 of the common law offences of "riot, rout and affray")
• increasing emphasis on place- and situation-specific restrictions rather than broader restrictions
• relaxation of requirements regarding authorisation of assembies in public and private spaces

Salient contemporary legislation includes the

• Commonwealth Unlawful Assemblies Ordinance 1937 (prohibition on more than twenty people to meet or be assembled in the open air for any unlawful purpose within 90 metres from any part of the federal Parliament House)
• Commonwealth Parliamentary Precincts Act 1988 the Public Order (Protection of Persons and Property) Act 1971
• WA Public Meetings & Processions Act 1984
• ACT Unlawful Assemblies Ordinance
• Queensland Peaceful Assembly Act 1992
• NSW Summary Offences Act
• Victorian Unlawful Assemblies and Processions Act 1958

The 'granularity' of assemblies varies.

The WA Public Meetings & Processions Act 1984 regarding the holding of "public meetings" and "processions" for example indicates that a gathering is a "public meeting" where it comprises 3 or more persons, is held for the purpose of communicating or expressing any view to, or ascertaining any view of, the public or any section of the public ... or of demonstrating, as to any matter; and members of the public have been invited, induced or permitted to attend.

A procession similarly comprises 3 or more persons

assembled with the intent of moving, or move, from the place of assembly by means of any street as, or substantially as, a body of persons in orderly succession proceeding by a common route

The Queensland counterpart is twelve people.

     primers

In the interim insights are offered by Roger Douglas' Dealing with Demonstrations: The Law of Public Protest and Its Enforcement (Annandale: Federation Press 2004), the Unlawful Assemblies and Processions Act 1958 Issues Paper released in 1999 by the Victorian Parliament Scrutiny of Acts & Regulations Committee and Batons & Blockades: Policing Industrial Disputes in Australasia (Beaconsfield: Circa 2005) by David Baker.




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