The New South Wales premier wants parliament to grant his government “extraordinary powers” to effectively ban protests for three months, claiming the “implications” of pro-Palestine rallies could be seen in the Bondi terror attack that killed 15 people.

Chris Minns on Friday said when a terrorism designation was in place, the police, with the agreement of the minister, “will be able to declare a specific area where the public assemblies are restricted for a period of time”.

“That might be any part of the state or all over the state. No public assemblies in a designated area will be able to be authorised, including by a court,” he told reporters.

“These are obviously extraordinary powers – not seen before in any jurisdiction in the country.”

The restriction on protests would last for up to three months, and the judiciary would be stripped of any oversight.

“When you see people marching and showing violent bloody images, images of death and destruction, it’s unleashing something in our community that the organisers of the protest can’t contain,” Minns said.

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The premier and the Palestine Action Group, which organised the harbour bridge march, said there were no plans for upcoming protests.

Police have alleged the Bondi beach gunmen, 24-year-old Naveed Akram and his father, Sajid Akram, 50, were “inspired by Isis”. Asio and police confirmed they had some knowledge of Naveed, with an investigation running for six months from October 2019.

“[Naveed Akram] was examined on the basis of being associated with others,” Anthony Albanese said this week. “The assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence.”

Fifteen people were killed when a Hanukah festival event at Archer park was targeted on Sunday evening.

Guardian Australia understands the anti-protest laws would fall under a terrorism and other legislation amendment bill and would include a “public assembly restriction declaration” or “Pard” power.

A Pard could be made for a designated area within 14 days of a terrorism designation if a public assembly would “cause fear of harassment, intimidation or violence, or cause a risk to community safety”.

It would give police the ability to issue a move-on direction in relation to “certain types” of conduct. There would be a carve-out for “industrial disputes”.

Minns’ conflation of protest with attack labelled ‘outrageous’

Josh Lees, a spokesperson for the Palestine Action Group, accused Minns of “a series of completely untrue and divisive accusations” and claimed the premier was “seeking to blame the mass movement against what the United Nations has confirmed is a genocide in Gaza for the horrific Bondi attack”.

“This movement has always stood against antisemitism, has been organised in tandem with Jewish groups from the outset and is devastated and in mourning at the horrific loss of life which took place in Bondi,” Lees said.

“To be clear, the Palestine Action Group does not have any protests planned for the current period.”

Minns said the change was not directed at any one group, but when asked about the bridge protest, noted: “I opposed it, police opposed it, [and] I made it clear it wasn’t consistent with community harmony.”

The federal government’s antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, said this week: “This did not come without warning. In Australia, it began on 9 October 2023 at the Sydney Opera House. We then watched a march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, waving terrorist flags and glorifying extremist leaders. Now death has reached Bondi beach.”

David Ossip, the president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, said on Monday that “for two years, people have paraded in our streets and universities calling for the intifada to be globalised, a catchphrase which means kill Jews wherever you find them”.

“Last night, the intifada was globalised and came to Bondi. What we’ve seen has been the logical progression. Demonising Jews with rhetoric, which slowly builds up to acts of violence and then acts of violence which last night took life.”

The initial Wednesday announcement about a crackdown on protests drew fierce backlash from two Jewish groups that are vocal supporters of the pro-Palestine movement.

Jesse McNicoll, a member of the Jewish Voices of Inner Sydney, said it was “outrageous” that the pain of his community could be used to shut down a movement “opposing genocide”, adding that the “protests had nothing to do with the attacks”.

Max Kaiser, the executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia, questioned the focus on the pro-Palestine movement when “there exists very real sources of antisemitism on the far right, including neo-Nazis”.

Minns on Friday was asked if it was “wrong” for members of his own cabinet and “well-meaning Sydneysiders” to attend August’s march across the harbour bridge.

Among the state Labor MPs who rallied alongside Sharpe were fellow minister Jihad Dib along with Lynda Voltz, Sarah Kaine and Stephen Lawrence. Federal Labor MPs Alison Byrne and Tony Sheldon joined Husic.

Minns said on Friday: “I understand that people have genuine concerns about issues that are happening around the world, have deep and passionate interests about human rights or issues in other jurisdictions, of course, they do. But my concern is Sydney right now.”

The president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, Tim Roberts, said on Friday that the proposed changes were extraordinary.

“These are far too broad powers for the police commissioner,” he said. “The banning of protests will not stop antisemitism, and the premier is wrong to disgracefully link years of peaceful protest to such a horrific and unrelated event.”

The NSW treasurer, Daniel Moohkey, told reporters on Thursday that “anyone who is saying something like ‘globalising intifada’ is committing hate speech”.

“I personally think that any reasonable person would just see what the consequences of that have been on Sunday night,” he said.

Lees said on Friday he did not recall the group ever chanting “globalise the intifada”, but that labelling the phrase as hate speech was “ignorant”.

“The word literally means ‘shaking off’ and refers to the efforts of Palestinians, through mass protests and uprisings, to shake off the illegal occupation and apartheid racist policies that the state of Israel imposes on the Palestinian people,” he said.

“There is absolutely nothing antisemitic about this word or associated chants. Banning it in Australia is the equivalent of banning expressions of solidarity with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.”

The NSW opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, said the Coalition was “broadly willing to work in a bipartisan manner with the government”.

“The other common concern that has been raised by faith leaders and by the Jewish community and by the broader community has been the relentless protests in Hyde Park,” she said on Friday.

“We need to reintroduce laws that will address the hate speech that is spewing from those protests, to give our police and our lawmakers the ability to shut them down when they believe there is community risk.”

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This article was amended on 19 December 2025. A previous version incorrectly stated Penny Sharpe was Labor’s deputy leader when she is the leader of the government in the upper house.