Your right to protest is under attack

The NSW Government has introduced a bill to NSW Parliament that will significantly restrict people’s civil liberties and their rights to peaceful protest.

Called the Right to Farm Bill, it massively increases the penalty for ‘aggravated unlawful entry on inclosed lands’ from $5,500 to $22,000 or three years imprisonment, or both.

This is an extreme measure designed to shut down dissent everywhere. It must not become law.

Please email your local MP asking them to vote against the bill unless the offending sections are removed.

Your right to protest is under attack

The NSW Government has introduced a bill to NSW Parliament that will significantly restrict people’s civil liberties and their rights to peaceful protest.

Please email your MP calling on them to oppose increases in fines and gaol terms for peaceful protests.

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Dear MP

The right to protest is fundamental to a healthy democracy, but that right is being undermined by a bill currently before the NSW Parliament.

I write to ask you to support sensible amendments to the Right to Farm Bill 2019 to protect peaceful protest and ensure that current penalties are not increased.  If these amendments are not agreed to by our Parliament, I request that you oppose the Bill.

The NSW Government has portrayed the legislation as simply about stopping animal welfare activists trespassing on farms but hidden in Schedule 2 of the Bill is a sinister and broad threat to democracy and the right to protest.

The proposed legislation increases the fine for anyone who 'enters inclosed lands without permission' and 'hinders' a business when they do so, from $5,500 to $22,000 and brings in a new three-year gaol sentence for the offence.  This is occurring only three years after the penalty for this offence was increased tenfold from $550.

The definition of ‘inclosed lands’ is so broad that it captures any land with a defined boundary, such as any building, a forestry coupe with a fence, land designated for coal or gas mining, or a work site.

The definition of hindering a business is similarly broad and would capture many forms of peaceful protest, such as a sit-in at a company's corporate headquarters, a farmer or knitting nanna who locks on to coal or gas equipment, or even union officials’ and members' activities on a work site.

I join with unions, environment groups and civil liberties organisations who oppose the disproportionate and anti-democratic elements of this legislation.

I am requesting that you ask your party and the Attorney-General Mark Speakman to amend the Right to Farm Bill so that it:

o	Does not apply to people engaged in genuine peaceful protest;
o	Does not increase the current penalties for aggravated unlawful entry onto inclosed lands; and 
o	Does not criminalise people who encourage others to participate in a peaceful protest.

Yours Sincerely,

{firstname} {lastname},
{postcode}

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Your right to protest is under attack

The NSW Government has introduced a bill to NSW Parliament that will significantly restrict people’s civil liberties and their rights to peaceful protest.

Your right to protest is under attack

The NSW Government has introduced a bill to NSW Parliament that will significantly restrict people’s civil liberties and their rights to peaceful protest.

Select your member of parliament *

Insert your personalised email header *

You can edit the text below to personalise your message *

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