Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has criticised some judges and activists for treating the freedom to protest as a “trumping power” over all other rights, enshrining weekly pro-Palestine protests above the common good and social cohesion. Source: The Australian.
Archbishop Fisher’s speech to the Samuel Griffith Society on Sunday touched on these issues and questioned whether the courts had upheld the freedom to protest above all other rights, causing harm to the Jewish community and intimidating religious gatherings.
Noting that weekly pro-Palestine protests were mostly held on Sundays in Hyde Park outside St Mary’s Cathedral, his own congregation, Archbishop Fisher suggested Australia had become “drunk on the notion of protest” and failed to balance free speech with other freedoms “central to the common good”.
“The speeches and chants, placards and flyers have regularly strayed into attacks on all Israelis, all Jews or all Western nations for their supposed complicity or shared guilt,” Archbishop Fisher said.
“That these regulars do not decry (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s adventures in the Ukraine or other supposed invasions and genocides, week after week at my place or elsewhere, makes me wonder how much this is driven not by a love for peace and freedom but by old-fashioned antisemitism.
Archbishop Fisher said he regarded peaceful protest as a key pillar of liberal democracy; however, he expressed concern that the widely acknowledged limits on free speech were being devalued.
“The recent rhetoric of some activists and even some judges suggests that political communication has a presumptive priority or trumping power over many or all other rights, no matter how it is exercised,” he said.
“After almost three years of this experience, I think it is high time to ask whether we have the balance right between freedom of political communication, now recognised as implied in our Constitution, and other fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to gather and worship in peace.”
Archbishop Fisher said Australia had to balance implied freedoms which by design could “easily stray” into the territory where the interests and ideologies of one group were imposed “upon everyone else”.
He said security, religious association and the common good had to be valued to restore democracy and the rule of law.
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Sydney Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher calls for balance on freedom to protest (By Elizabeth Pike, The Australian)
