Civil liberties groups have criticised NSW Police’s attempt to invoke rarely used anti-riot laws for the first time in over a decade against former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas, questioning whether police are biased against pro-Palestinian protesters. Thomas was seriously injured after being arrested at a pro-Palestinian protest in June and says she may never regain sight in her right eye. NSW Police confirmed it would seek to drop the charge relating to emergency police powers under section 6A of the Law Enforcement Powers and Responsibilities Act (LEPRA) laid on 27 June, and have added an alternate charge of refusing to comply with a direction to move on. “On Monday 30 June 2025, I put in place a process to review the charges laid in this matter to ensure the relevant and most appropriate charges are applied,” NSW Police assistant commissioner Brett McFadden said in a statement. “The review is part of normal critical incident protocols.” Advocates say the treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters by NSW Police is highly concerning. Source: AAP / Flavio Brancaleone But some lawyers say they are shocked the charge was ever laid, as the emergency police powers outlined in LEPRA cannot be invoked without high-level approval from the commissioner of police or premier, and cannot apply retroactively if that approval was never given. Hannah Thomas in hospital being treated for her eye injury, in a still taken from a video on her Instagram page. Source: Instagram / Hannah Thomas Meija-Canales said the laws give police “unbelievable powers” that aren’t often used “for good reason”. “The fact that these laws have been used and the charges have been removed under a review where the police haven’t actually explained why they were laid in the first place, that raises incredible concerns,” he said. A still from an undated video showing police and protesters clashing outside a Sydney factory. The protesters said the factory was supplying material used in Israeli fighter jets. Source: AAP / Amanda King and Fabio Cavadini/PR IMAGE What are NSW’s anti-riot laws? In 2005, following the Cronulla riots, then-NSW Premier Morris Iemma recalled parliament to vote on legislation which would give police more powers to force people to move along amid large-scale demonstrations where there was a risk of public disorder, and seize and detain objects and search people without a warrant. They haven’t been invoked for protests since 2011. Since their introduction, police have not clarified how many people would constitute a “large-scale” demonstration. In October 2023, NSW deputy police commissioner David Hudson told reporters he was seeking to enable the anti-riot powers before a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney’s Hyde Park, a decision backed by Premier Chris Minns. A legal case was brought against the proposal and police ultimately backed down, choosing not to invoke the emergency powers. She said it was “absurd” to have levelled them against Thomas and “there are allegations police used powers unlawfully” against the former Greens candidate for Grayndler. “They’re very extensive powers and certainly I think it would’ve been just not required in this situation,” Lee told SBS News. Allegations of bias Australian Democracy Network (ADN) protest rights campaigner Anastasia Radievska said it’s “extra worrying” police were “attempting to charge somebody for not complying with powers that they weren’t aware existed at the time” at the protest Thomas attended. Radievska also pointed out it’s not clear on what legal basis police issued a move-on order to the demonstrators. She said in NSW “there’s been an escalating pattern of police violence at protests where there’s large representation of Muslim communities and similarly protests where there’s basically communities that are already vulnerable to policing when they demonstrate in large numbers”. Pro-Palestinian protesters in Sydney’s Hyde Park in November last year. There has been regular pro-Palesitian protests in Sydney since the start of the Hamas-Israel war. Source: AAP / Flavio Brancaleone “In 2023-24, police in NSW were observed by independent legal observers to target cars with Palestinian flags driving near Hyde Park during a rally for stop and searches, with drivers being fined for minor infringements such as tucking P plates under a number plate instead of on a bracket,” the report states. “Police were also observed to be writing down the number plates of vehicles with Palestinian flags. None of the other many cars passing by the area were stopped and searched or had their vehicles recorded by police.” Mejia-Canales said since October 2023 there has been a “weaponisation of the law to target protests for Palestine”. “The most recent objections that police have had — where they lodged Supreme Court challenges to prevent protests from going ahead — were protests for Palestine, particularly one that was going to occur one year after the Hamas attacks in Israel.” He said this was despite peaceful protests happening in support of Palestinians “every week for a year”. “The overwhelming number of those protests have been peaceful, but police still sought to block a protest from going ahead, a protest for peace in Palestine based on some ridiculous assessment, including that the planter boxes that are outside town hall in Sydney are going to be dangerous somehow to protesters. “I mean, it really does seem that the police is really just clutching at straws to kind of weaponise more laws to prevent protests from happening, in particular protests regarding peace in Palestine.”