This weekend, hundreds of thousands of Australians filled the streets of cities and towns across the nation to protests again the war in Gaza. But anti-protest laws passed in the past few years could curb similar outpourings of public support.

A 2024 report by the Human Rights Law Centre found there had been 49 laws passed over the last two decades eroding Australians’ right to protest.

To give one example, in 2023 the South Australian Government introduced laws that mean people can be fined up to $50,000, or sentenced to three months jail for “intentionally or recklessly obstructing the free passage of a public place.”

Just this weekend, people in Brisbane were forced to take an alternative route after a court put an end to their plans to walk across the Story Bridge.

But from women’s suffrage to better working conditions, protest is how Australians have won change, and research polling from The Australia Institute shows that more than two thirds (71%) of Australians say that the right to protest should be protected by federal legislation.

Recent anti-protest laws are primarily aimed at climate action protestors, but if protests against the war in Gaza continue to grow, their limits could be tested in unexpected ways.