@davidc4430 wrote:
are they breaking a 'law'?
i dont see a law being broken, i'm sure the 'NO' team could set up a similar display at another round-about if the wanted too.
peaceful demonstration should allways be OK
ive seen plenty of non-peaceful demonstrations on the news, usually the police going overboard and making themselves look bad.
golly gosh, the gay people have a parade in sydney every year, where are the anti-gay demonstrators then?
luckily this ordeal will be over in a few weeks and it'll be back to govt having to make a decision.....or not
In order to use public space for rallies and displays you first have to apply to council for a permit to use the space. This entails having public liability insurance and all of the other BS, red tape that goes along with public displays and gatherings.
There is no way in the world any council would give a permit to a group to set up on a busy roundabout where they would be distracting drivers and putting themeselves in danger, trying to dodge traffic to get to the roundabout. Also there is no way any insurance company would touch it, so yes this SSM group is breaking the law.
I suspect that is part of the problem with the issue you highlighted. When a small group is allowed to get away with breaking the law in a pretty stupid way and the authorities refuse to do anything about it, some people will take the law into their own hands. That is when things start to get messy and out of hand as we see in this incident. If the authorities had done their job and told the SSM marriage supporters to stage their rallies and displays in an appropriate place, this incident may not have occured.