At least three organizations, one Palestinian, one Jewish, and one indigenous, are planning to file lawsuits against new legislation to ban gatherings — passed in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre, which they claim violates speech and assembly rights. 

On Christmas eve, New South Wales lawmakers voted to give police the power to enact a blanket ban on congregations for two-week increments for up to three months after police declare a “terrorism incident.” 

The law was passed in an effort to calm frayed nerves following the December 14 slaughter of 15 Jews celebrating the first night of Hanukkah on the beach in Sydney. The ban is supposed to apply to processions, not necessarily static gatherings.

The day the law was passed, the police commissioner for the state, Mal Lanyon, declared a two-week ban on all public gatherings. The commissioner stated that any gathering in the South West, North West, or Central Metropolitan policing areas will be considered “unauthorized and participants will not have the protection of the Summary Offences Act.”

The indigenous group, Blak Caucus, had scheduled a January 25 march called “Invasion Day” to protest police actions against indigenous peoples. Mr. Lanyon’s decision revoked permission for any gathering that had previously been approved. 

The group says it will challenge the law as unconstitutional, Australia’s ABC news reports. Palestine Action Group and Jews Against Occupation also say they will sue. A spokeswoman for the Jewish organization, Michelle Berkman, said that the law will end up increasing hostility toward Jews.

“To impose these repressive laws, you are not only scapegoating the millions of Australians of anti-racist Australians protesting genocide, but using Jewish people as your human shields,” she told ABC. “We will bear the resentment of the community.”

The commissioner’s two-week ban earned praise from the premier, Chris Minns. “I know that they’re extraordinary powers. We believe they are absolutely essential in keeping order and peace during this Christmas period and through the opening days of summer,” he said Thursday, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“We just can’t have a situation at the moment when mass protests rip apart our social cohesion. We’ve got an obligation to pull people together right now, and this is the right call.”

Even before the law was passed, officials had already cancelled two New Year’s Eve events at Bondi Beach in response to the December 14 attack that killed 15. The attack by two Muslims believed to be affiliated with ISIS, was declared a terrorist incident that day. 

Aside from stifling public gatherings, the new law, called the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, limits to four the number of guns that licensed recreational owners can own. It also calls for a review of hate speech laws. 

According to the new law, farmers, who are frequently confronted with wild animals, may own up to 10 guns. Those who are permitted gun licenses will be reviewed every two years and won’t be allowed to appeal a license removal.

Residents will also have to have their gun licenses reviewed every two years, rather than every five, and will lose the ability to appeal a licence removal in the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).

Already, the law has been used in the arrest of a Perth man who commended the Bondi Beach shooter in social media posts. Police conducted a search of his home and allegedly found notebooks containing extremist views about Jewish people and flags of Hamas and Hezbollah. 

The man, who legally owned several guns, was charged with conduct intended to racially harass, carrying or possessing a prohibited weapon and failing to properly store a firearm. He was denied bail and is due in court in February.