A Comparison of the Right to Protest and its Constitutional Protection: COVID and Beyond

This article considers the right to protest, and the way in which it is currently regulated by some Australian states. The legislation confers great discretion on decision makers in terms of whether to grant permission for a proposed protest. The article makes the argument that the discretion is so broad so that its exercise is, on one view, effectively unreviewable. The High Court has struck down provisions as constitutionally invalid where decisions made pursuant to it purport to be effectively unreviewable. It is also argued that legislation cast in such broad terms is contrary to the rule of law.