He’s taunted protesters and rebuked judges. Is the premier fraying cohesion?

April 23, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

There was some sage advice for the premier within the Court of Appeal’s finding last week that anti-protest laws passed by the Minns government after the Bondi terrorist attack were unconstitutional.

In ruling the government’s Public Assembly Restriction Declaration, or PARD laws, invalid, the court found it was “not a legitimate purpose” for a government to preserve social cohesion.

Sounds shocking, right? Surely, it must fall within the wheelhouse of our elected officials to help us live more or less in harmony with our neighbours, particularly at a time like now, when it increasingly feels as though our shared bonds are fraying. Premier Chris Minns seemed to think so, taking the fairly extraordinary step for a premier of rebuking the state’s top court.

“I think it’s easy for lawyers and the courts to say it’s not the government’s responsibility,” Minns said, “but when things go wrong, and you have a major violent disruption on the streets of Sydney, I can guarantee you, most people are desperate for the NSW Police to be out there to keep us safe.”

But beyond the straw man waving from that response – yes, most people probably would........

© The Sydney Morning Herald