The Courier-Mail

COURT ON STANDBY FOR SIT-IN

- Crime · Incidents · Justice · Immigration · Law · Society · Australian Border Force · Queensland · Queensland Police · Kangaroo Point · South Carolina

THE At­tor­ney-Gen­eral could still seek a court or­der on Thurs­day to stop a mass sit-in on Bris­bane’s Story Bridge on Satur­day, if talks with refugee rights ac­tivists fail.

Bris­bane Supreme Court was told on Mon­day there was to be a meet­ing be­tween pro­test­ers, Aus­tralian Bor­der Force and Queens­land Po­lice.

On Mon­day, Refugee Sol­i­dar­ity Bris­bane/Mean­jin, a group in­volved in a refugee protest col­lec­tive, said the meet­ing with Bor­der Force would be at noon Tues­day.

Last Satur­day, Jus­tice Peter Ap­ple­garth made or­ders that pre­vented a sit-in of thou­sands of peo­ple on Bris­bane’s Story Bridge in sup­port of refugees de­tained in a Kan­ga­roo Point mo­tel.

Refugee ac­tivists wanted a meet­ing with Bor­der Force to dis­cuss the “free move­ment” of asy­lum seek­ers out­side the ho­tel.

Jus­tice Ap­ple­garth on Mon­day set down a two-hour hear­ing for Thurs­day, in case the At­tor­neyGen­eral de­cided to pro­ceed with a new in­junc­tion ap­pli­ca­tion if pro­test­ers did not ap­ply for a protest un­der the Peace­ful As­sem­bly Act.

Late on Fri­day, pro­test­ers said last Satur­day’s sit-in would be post­poned un­til next Satur­day.

How­ever, the At­tor­ney-Gen­eral still ap­plied for an in­junc­tion and af­ter a two-hour hear­ing on

Satur­day, Jus­tice Ap­ple­garth made or­ders ef­fec­tively pre­vent­ing that day’s protest.

Two peo­ple named as protest or­gan­is­ers, Jar­rah Ker­shaw and Laura Har­land, were or­dered not to at­tend or en­cour­age oth­ers to at­tend that day’s planned bridge sit-in.

They also were or­dered not to block the pub­lic’s right of way on or near the bridge, but that or­der was re­moved on Mon­day. Coun­sel for Mr Ker­shaw and Ms Har­land, Greg Barns SC, on Mon­day told Jus­tice

Ap­ple­garth that the pair were not the sit-in protest or­gan­is­ers.

Out­side court on Mon­day, Mr Ker­shaw and Ms Har­land said: “We are sim­ply stand­ing in sol­i­dar­ity for the men who have been locked up for more than seven years.”

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