Hannah Thomas, former Greens candidate for Grayndler, has sent concerns notices to Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, and Sky News. A concerns notice is a legal document stating that a defamatory action has been made.
The notices relate to comments made by Burke about a protest at which Thomas was present and sustained a serious eye injury in an altercation with NSW police.
Burke had commented in an interview with Sky News that “For anyone wanting to have a protest… no one’s above the law.”
“When people were asked to move on by the police they should have followed the police direction. Apparently they didn’t.”
Thomas had been involved in a pro-Palestine picket outside weapons manufacturing company SEC Plating. She and four other protesters had been arrested in Belmore on 27th June for resisting move-on orders from police.
On 30th June, NSW police declared Thomas’ injury a “critical incident”, saying that the severity of her injury warranted a police investigation.
In a statement, Thomas said “While I was in hospital recovering from serious, life-changing injuries incurred at the hands of NSW Police for engaging in peaceful protest, the Home Affairs Minister and Sky News chose to victim-blame me.
“Minister Burke and Sky News suggested that people who exercise their fundamental right to protest, may well end up brutalised by police and that this is acceptable. It’s a sinister message that risks emboldening further police violence.”
Thomas and the other protesters are being represented by O’Brien Criminal & Civil Solicitors. Stewart O’Connell, the company’s senior defamation solicitor, commented “I can confidently say that no one in this country should be at risk of an injury like this at the hands of the police merely because they engaged in protest.
“It is outrageous that Minister Burke’s comments and Sky News reporting effectively minimised the significance of the injury and focused on stating that Ms. Thomas engaged in unlawful conduct.”
