Tasmania's parliament has quashed attempts to repeal controversial anti-protest laws, with the Liberal government using its lower house majority to maintain the legislation which will now be tested by the High Court.
Armed with a community petition and the story of a failed prosecution, Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor fought to have the law scrapped on Wednesday.
"The Act harshly punishes free speech and peaceful assembly including on public streets and other public places through possibility of four-year jail terms or $10,000 fines," read the petition she tabled.
It further alleges the legislation was drafted in a complex and convoluted style, creating uncertainty about the scope of the act.
Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown was arrested in January and charged under the law for his peaceful protest against logging in northwest Tasmania's Lapoinya State Forest.
Police have since discontinued his prosecution on legal advice but Dr Brown will push ahead with plans for a High Court challenge against the legislation, citing it's undemocratic.
After her bill was defeated Ms O'Connor said the Greens will wait for the High Court ruling.
"When the law is eventually consigned to the dustbin of legal history, and it will be, Tasmania will return to applying conventional laws of trespass and public nuisance which regulate protest activity in a way that raise no constitutional issues and are well understood and accepted," Ms O'Connor said.
Premier Will Hodgman insists the laws protect the rights of working Tasmanians.
"Parliament passed legislation which we took to the state election as a new policy which doesn't, as you suggest, do anything other than restore some balance into this issue where previously illegal and unlawful protesters had been able to impede businesses and people from making a lawful living," Mr Hodgman said.
"I've no doubt that environmentalists and those with a point to prove will do whatever they can to get themselves arrested to get themselves in a court to test these laws."
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