Heavy Police Presence at Sydney’s Free Palestine Rally Cost NSW Government $1 Million

The significant police presence at Sydney’s free Palestine rallies is costing the NSW Government as much as $1 million per event in officer overtime. 

More than 100,000 protestors marched in solidarity with Palestine in Australian capital cities for the fifth consecutive weekend since Israel’s bombardment of Gaza began in early October. Each weekend the protest crowds have grown larger – in Sydney alone approximately 50,000 people gathered on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, more than a thousand people gathered to call for support for the state of Israel and the release of Hamas hostages. 

Both events were well attended by NSW Police. 

Following the rally, NSW Premier Chris Minns revealed the cost of policing a major protest was as much as $1 million and, on Monday, requested additional funding from the Federal Government to help foot the bill.

“It’s costing a lot, it is in excess of $1 million for a major protest and the reason for that is that there’s a large police presence associated with these protests,” Minns said.

“They’re not just to maintain safety of the community and assets and people but also to monitor for those fundamental principles that we have in NSW around racial vilification and hate speech.”

Since the first rallies in early October, the NSW Police Association said close to 3500 police shifts have been spent at the events.

The association’s president Kevin Morton said this put a strain on police resources. 

“For every shift that you drag away from that constable for protests, it's going to be a bit more difficult to fill that first response, which is the required number of police that has been determined to keep the community safe,” he told the Daily Telegraph. 

Very few arrests have been made at the free Palestine rallies across the country but ahead of the Melbourne Cup four protestors were arrested and pepper sprayed after they blocked a road road leading to Flemington Racecourse.

Minns said police were in close contact with the rally organisers following reports of antisemitic chants at one rally last month. 

“In recent weeks, there have been good conversations between police and these groups, which have kept these protests civil, but they’re going to have to continue to be [civil] because it’s our responsibility to keep the community safe,” he said.

Minns also committed to a review of section 93Z of the Crimes Act, which criminalises threats or incitement of violence over religious or racial grounds. The Act was introduced in 2018 and hasn’t yet resulted in a successful prosecution, which Minns said meant “something has got to change”.

“It’s resulting in no prosecutions. And if you’re going to have a law on the books saying racial vilification and hate speech is not allowed in New South Wales, then it can’t be toothless,” he said.

“You’ve got to have a situation…where it does result in charges in the end and I don’t think anyone would, with a straight face, make the claim that hate speech has been extinguished in this state.”

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Aleksandra Bliszczyk is the Deputy Editor of VICE Australia. Follow her on Instagram.