NSW government and police spent nearly $500,000 on lost cases against pro-Palestine groups

The New South Wales government and police have spent almost half a million dollars in legal fees on cases they lost against pro-Palestine groups, including when unsuccessfully defending constitutional challenges against protest laws expected to be struck down.

The costs, outlined in documents obtained by Guardian Australia via freedom of information legislation, include $117,455.50 of taxpayers’ money on a single challenge to controversial public assembly restriction declaration (Pard) laws. Those laws were enacted after the Bondi beach terror attack and were in place during a now infamous rally against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in February.

The state’s court of appeal struck down the laws in April after finding they impermissibly burdened the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication. It awarded costs to the plaintiffs, three activist groups, with the total bill to the taxpayer to rise once they are finalised.

It was the second time in six months an anti-protest law passed by the Minns government was found unconstitutional by a court, after the NSW supreme court struck down an older law that gave police expanded powers to prevent protests near places of worship. The government spent almost $96,400 on barristers and solicitors fees in that case, the documents reveal.

On Friday, the Palestine Action Group confirmed the government had paid $184,584 in costs to the group’s lawyers following the case.

The law, which was reintroduced with amendments last year, caused friction during a Labor caucus meeting when it was first being legislated.

Upper house Labor MP Anthony D’Adam had moved a motion to redraft the bill so that it was limited to protests directed at a place of worship, with colleagues Stephen Lawrence and Cameron Murphy warning the current wording could be found to be unconstitutional. The premier, Chris Minns, said in March 2025 the government believed the laws were “constitutionally sound”.

Guardian Australia has also obtained NSW police’s costs over two court cases which saw them oppose “form 1” applications to authorise pro-Palestine protests on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House last year.

In the first case, which police lost, the force spent more than $91,600 on external barristers and solicitors to fight the application. Unlike the NSW government’s costs, the police figures provided to Guardian Australia do not include the cost of employing in-house legal staff.

In response to questions, a spokesperson for NSW police referred Guardian Australia to a statement made after the August 2025 protest which occurred without major incident and was attended by Minns government ministers.

“The greatest concern for police during the operation was that of a crowd crush due to the significant numbers of attendees. Police managed this situation in line with public safety,” it said.

Police spent almost $59,500 on legal fees last October opposing a planned pro-Palestine march to the Sydney Opera House, before the court of appeal sided with police against the Palestine Action Group due to “extreme” safety concerns.

In total, the NSW government and police have spent at least $490,000 on cases they lost against pro-Palestine groups heard in NSW’s highest courts – the supreme court and the court of appeal – and $87,099.29 on cases they successfully contested.

Josh Lees, organiser for the Palestine Action Group, a party to all five cases, said “this huge waste of money shows the desperate lengths Chris Minns has been prepared to go to, in order to rip up our democratic rights”.

The government rushed through the Pard laws to give the police commissioner the power to issue a declaration to ban protesting in a particular area after a suspected terrorist attack.

Legal experts and civil liberties groups had raised concerns, with Anne Twomey, professor emerita in constitutional law at the University of Sydney, warning: “History tells us that anti-protest laws rushed through parliament often have an unhappy ending in the courts.”

In response to questions, a government spokesperson said Labor had “acted to protect the community, maintain social cohesion and ensure people felt safe” after the Bondi terror attack.

“These laws played an important role in ensuring there was no conflict on Sydney’s streets, including around Bondi and the CBD, during the visit of a global head of state,” they said.

The spokesperson said “while some of the challenges to these laws have been successful, others have not”, including the challenge to the government’s decision to declare a major event during Herzog’s visit.