Make no mistake: the right to public assembly is one of the pillars of our democracy, and a big reason Australia remains one of the most open and balanced societies in the world.

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But every right comes with responsibilities, and sometimes with practical limits.

It's reasonable to ask whether the choice of location for a public gathering can be questioned; especially on safety grounds, as seen in the recent NSW court decision over a dispute between the organisers of a pro-Palestinian rally and the NSW police.

I'm not a legal expert, and I'm not to parse the legal specifics of that case, in which the NSW Court of Appeal unanimously upheld police objections to using the Sydney Opera House forecourt as the endpoint of a planned rally, citing crowd-crush risk.

My question is narrower and specific here: was "public safety" in this instance a political fig leaf, an overly cautious interpretation of risk, or a genuinely evidence-based concern? Which is it?

First off, the organisers' wish to include the Opera House forecourt as the rally's converging point is entirely understandable. A site like the Sydney Opera House lends enormous symbolic power to any cause. A march down ordinary CBD streets simply cannot match that.

An iconic location like this helps the message travel further and leaves a stronger imprint on the public consciousness.

We've seen this dynamic before. Just a few months ago, a pro-Palestine rally that crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge drew tens of thousands and made international headlines; partly because the bridge itself is an emblem of national identity.

But let's turn to the public-safety details; specifically, the risk of a crowd crush cited in the police case. The technical side of this is quite simple: it actually comes down to how many people can safely occupy how much space.

The organisers had reportedly predicted a turnout of around 40,000. But It's obvious that figure can never be guaranteed. In an open, unticketed event, anyone can show up.

The actual........

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