“Actively Increasing the Divide”: NSWCCL’s Timothy Roberts on the Lack of Apology for Police Violence

The state of New South Wales set 3,000 police officers onto a crowd of 20,000 pro-Palestinians supporters, as they rallied against the official visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog on Gadigal land at Sydney Town Hall. However, the state’s premier Chris Minns, police minister Yasmin Catley and police commissioner Mal Lanyon have all outright refused to apologise for this police brutality.

The police officers were unleashed upon the crowd that has been mobilising for 29 months now, over the Israeli perpetrated and ongoing genocide in Gaza. The protesters gathered in defiance of NSW authorities, who’d suggested they rally elsewhere, and they demanded to march despite an official ban being in place. So, NSW police wrestled, punched, tackled and pepper sprayed the group.

However, the most confronting aspect of the “no-holds barred” police attack on parts of the NSW constiuency was when a group of officers assaulted a number of Muslim people praying in the square beside Town Hall. Lanyon did go on to apologise for this aspect of behaviour on the night, but only to tell these individuals “sorry for any offence taken”, which has since been labelled a non-apology.

The 9 February 2026 police attack is unprecedented in living memory. The police action mirrored the long-term verbal condemnation of pro-Palestinians that premier Minns has engaged in since the start of the mass slaughter and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. The lack of apology conveys that the actions of police were right, and as well, how others might consider acting towards these people.

Provocative governance

But in a sign that the NSW Labor government is potentially in a race to the bottom in vilifying certain sectors of our community, Minns has described fellow Iranian members of it, who mourned the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as “atrocious”. And this coming from the head of the state appears as if he is harbouring some sort of prejudice towards certain people he governs.

Since the US and Israel launched their war of aggression on Iran, a state that has shown itself to be exceedingly gracious in terms of international relations since the Gaza genocide broke out, Iranian people are being demonised in the west. And to many NSW constituents who have long lived in a community with fellow Iranians, for the premier to take this stand is a complete betrayal.

Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Timothy Roberts about the dangerous lack of an apology, how the attack on the Muslim prayers and the criticism of the Muslim mourners might be impacting, and the fact that the social cohesion that NSW authorities are advocating for appears to be somewhat skewwhiff.

Timothy, it’s been a month since NSW police officers brutally attacked a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who were protesting the official visit of Israeli president Issac Herzog and sought to march across Gadigal land through the Sydney CBD, but no real apology from NSW authorities has been forthcoming.

In fact, figures like the NSW premier, the NSW police minister and the NSW police commissioner have outright refused to acknowledge there might be any reason to apologise for the police actions on that night.

So, what is being said by the NSW authorities in refusing to apologise for the police brutalisation? Is this a dangerous approach to take?

This is very dangerous. At a time when we should be restoring trust in the police force, trying to keep our community safe by making sure that the relationship between the police and the community is alright.

Our political leadership, the premier, the police minister and the police commissioner, are woefully lacking in building that bridge and frankly, it is unsafe.

Nothing prevents the premier from reacting to what he saw in respect of the police violence and apologising or at least trying to tone down the rhetoric. But he is refusing. It is shocking.

Perhaps the most disturbing images to come out of the 9 February police attack on protesters involved officers descending upon a group of Muslim people who were praying at the far end of the square next to Sydney Town Hall.

The police officers grabbed these people off the ground whilst in the act of praying and then threw them back down upon it.

The NSW premier and police minister have outright refused to apologise for this, whilst the police commissioner said sorry for any offence taken.

Is the NSW Council for Civil Liberties concerned what these refusals to properly apologise might more broadly be conveying?

CCL is really concerned about the complete disregard for the freedom of religion, or at least, what that group of men were doing at the time.

The refusal of an apology is incredibly divisive. It is dog whistling to One Nation voters, as opposed to uniting our community, which is what we desperately needed at the time.

Not only is the premier not driving us toward peace or to use his term, social cohesion, but in actively refusing to take the step to unite us with an apology specifically to that community, Minns is actively increasing the divide.

This isn’t leadership. This is pride. We have a premier that made the wrong decision, and his pride is refusing to let him apologise or make amends for it. We need leadership that is more evolved in NSW at this time.

This week, the NSW premier took umbrage at the idea that some of Greater Sydney’s Shia Muslim community would be mourning the death of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as he was their spiritual leader.

Is it a step too far for state politicians to tell constituents who they can and can’t mourn?

One hundred percent it is, and especially, at this time. We have no regard here for these people’s specific beliefs. He has no authority or standing to make specific commentary on the complex views that many people have in the community.

Further than that, rhetoric like that, at this time, is divisive and it could potentially lead to those sections of the community being targeted with further attacks and attention.

The community does not need that. What it needs is a premier that focuses on his job, which is to unite us with an alternative vision, not trying to lecture specific pockets of the community about what he thinks their views should be.

This is not his job. His job is to be the premier. His job is not to be the oppressor of certain religious groups in our community.

Another point the NSW premier has been making for at least a year now is that this state doesn’t have the robust protections for freedom of speech as they do in the United States, and this is because this state is a multicultural society, and therefore, this somehow warrants suppressions on speech.

How do you consider this argument?

It is a frankly absurd thing to say. The reasons we don’t have protections is because the people drafting our Australian Constitution didn’t think the political leadership of the future would not protect it themselves, and to have that balance correct for the times.

Minns is trying to blame multicultural Australia for a failing of his political leadership. And it is not only absurd, but it is a disgrace.

So, there is no basis to say that the NSW government has in the past limited freedom of speech protections in NSW, because the government is aware that there is a need to do so, because our society is not a monoculture?

Freedom of speech is a right of all humanity. It is a right that is attached to human dignity, and not with respect of someone’s race.

I am not sure if the premier is referring to the White Australia policy, which was alive during the time of Australia’s formation and the drafting of the Constitution, but it does not make sense even if he was.

We have no rights protections because our founding fathers, for want of a better term, did not believe or conceptualise a failing of political leadership that would not protect freedom of speech themselves and in legislation appropriate to the times.

And lastly, Timothy, as all this is all occurring, the NSW premier, the police minister and the commissioner have all been raising social cohesion as the reason for all the developments and positions taken.

So, how would you rate the campaign to maintain social cohesion in this state at present?

In a scale of 1 to 10 with one being the lowest, this is a big zero. It is worse than anything on that particular scale. We have, quite frankly, a premier, a police minister and a police commissioner that are using the phrase ‘social cohesion’ in an Orwellian way.

Social cohesion is left undefined, but then they are trying to present their own vision of what social cohesion looks like.

The commissioner and the rest of them are not heading us towards peace, but towards absolutely nowhere, and their policies are actively undermining social cohesion.

They are creating animosity and tension within the community. Their lack of insight shows that we have people commanding the ship with no idea of how to steer it.

The community is rightfully concerned that we are about to crash into a port. They need to either ship up or ship out, quite frankly.

If they don’t do that, the Labor caucus needs to bring them to heel.