Queensland state election
Katter’s Australian party will preference the Liberal National Party for the first time in a crucial north Queensland region at the state election.
KAP’s state leader, Robbie Katter, has confirmed the party will ask its supporters to preference the opposition in Townsville instead of Labor at the 26 October poll.
We’ve always had a position of neutrality on our preferences, and that’s because we don’t like endorsing one side or the other. But it does hit a point where you say, well, if someone’s been that bad, they need to be taught a lesson.
And Pauline Hanson launched One Nation’s Queensland campaign today. The One Nation leader announced the party would preference the LNP ahead of Labor and the Greens. She told 4BC:
Under Labor the state is in one hell of a mess.
The Greens will definitely be last on our how to vote cards.
– With AAP
Woman charged following Sydney CBD protest:
NSW police say they have charged a woman after a Hezbollah flag was allegedly displayed at a pro-Palestine and Lebanon protest in Sydney on the weekend.
In a statement, police said:
A woman has been charged as part of an investigation into a public order incident in Sydney last Sunday.
Operation Shelter was established in October 2023, to ensure community safety in response to protest activity. About 10am today (Wednesday 2 October 2024), the 19-year-old woman presented herself to Kogarah police station following a public appeal.
She was arrested and charged with cause public display of prohibited terrorists organisation symbol.
She was granted strict conditional bail to appear before the Downing centre local court on Wednesday 23 October 2024.
More info here:
Sydney councillor-elect calls on police to work with City instead of going to court
A City of Sydney councillor elect, Sylvie Ellsmore, has also called on police to work with the city of Sydney to manage how the protest takes place instead of taking the organisers to court:
Police have the option of working with the City of Sydney to manage how public space is used for protest and other activities – they do not need to take community activists to the supreme court to do so.
Police submit NSW supreme court application to block pro-Palestine rallies
NSW police have applied to the sate’s supreme court to prevent pro-Palestine rallies going ahead on 6 and 7 October.
Community Legal Centres NSW, Amnesty International Australia, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and the Jewish Council of Australia are among 40 groups urging the NSW police commissioner to reconsider the decision. Anastasia Radievska, a protest rights campaigner at the Australian Democracy Network, said:
In a democratic society, communities must be able to come together and have their say through protest. The attempt to prohibit a community rally that has safely run for 51 weeks is a serious attack on the right to protest. The NSW police’s citing of flower planter boxes at Town Hall as one of their main safety concerns makes a mockery of the Form 1 process and the supreme court’s time.
Source: theguardian.com
