this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
41 points (97.7% liked)
Australia
4832 readers
181 users here now
A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.
Before you post:
If you're posting anything related to:
- The Environment, post it to Aussie Environment
- Politics, post it to Australian Politics
- World News/Events, post it to World News
- A question to Australians (from outside) post it to Ask an Australian
If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News
Rules
This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:
- When posting news articles use the source headline and place your commentary in a separate comment
Banner Photo
Congratulations to @Tau@aussie.zone who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition
Recommended and Related Communities
Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:
- Australian News
- World News (from an Australian Perspective)
- Australian Politics
- Aussie Environment
- Ask an Australian
- AusFinance
- Pictures
- AusLegal
- Aussie Frugal Living
- Cars (Australia)
- Coffee
- Chat
- Aussie Zone Meta
- bapcsalesaustralia
- Food Australia
- Aussie Memes
Plus other communities for sport and major cities.
https://aussie.zone/communities
Moderation
Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.
Additionally, we have our instance admins: @lodion@aussie.zone and @Nath@aussie.zone
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Worth highlighting I think:
"The protest also fell within a designated area declared a “major event” under state legislation, which gives police expanded powers to move protesters on and search people for the duration of Herzog’s visit. It extinguished the ability for anybody who alleges they were the victim of any tortious acts by police to sue the state. ... Lawrence added: “There will be no civil liability, because under the Major Events Act declaration, all civil liability is extinguished.”
Wow, that's nuts! No wonder the cops were acting as if they could get away with anything!
Because they could.
The parallels to the past are striking! I have just been reading about Joh Belke-Peterson and it is eerie the way the past appears to be repeating:
1971 Springbok Tour & Secret Deals: In response to anti-apartheid protests, Bjelke-Petersen declared a month-long state of emergency, giving police extended powers. Evidence, including revelations in the book Three Crooked Kings, showed Bjelke-Petersen made a secret deal with the police union, promising officers they would not be penalized for any actions taken to suppress demonstrators.