The Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) said they would ignore a Supreme Court decision that declared Saturday’s event a prohibited public gathering.
RAC organiser James Supple told the court they were expecting a modest crowd of around 150 to 200 and that it could be held while observing social distancing rules.
He said the group was still planning to hold the rally and urged anyone attending to adhere to social distancing measures and health guidelines.
“We’ll still be holding an event this Saturday, urging people to participate,” Supple said outside court on Thursday night.
“As the court said, it doesn’t actually make it illegal to come to a protest, it just gives the police more powers.”
Barrister Emmanuel Kerkyasharian, for the organisers, said the idea that protests could be delayed was “frightening”.
“The purpose of this protest is to deal with people who are in prison against their will, in effect,” he told the court.
“Every day matters. Every day that that goes on matters.”
NSW police say they will not hesitate to prosecute those who attend upcoming Sydney protests, citing significant health and safety concerns.
Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing said a second planned protest connected to the Black Lives Matter campaign was unauthorised because police had not been formally notified.
The action is scheduled for Sydney Town Hall on Friday evening, with up to 3000 people expected to attend.
Willing said police would deploy “significant resources” to enforce the existing health order banning mass gatherings, which could include people being moved on and potentially arrested.
“While the NSW Police Force recognises and supports the rights of individuals to exercise their right to free speech in normal circumstances, these are not normal circumstances,” Willing said on Thursday.
“I want to be clear about this – if people choose to break the law and attend this protest, police will not hesitate to take the appropriate action against them.”
The Public Health Association has since come out and said it sees no reason protests can’t go ahead, saying given Australia’s success in controlling community transmission, there is no reason the protests shouldn’t proceed safely.
“The Black Lives Matter movement in Australia seeks to highlight the deplorable circumstances of disadvantage and discrimination experienced by Australia’s first people,” the association said in a statement.
“It is an important vehicle to seek changes that will help ‘close the gap’, and address generations of inequality and injustice which continues to this day.
“We call on governments and police to lend every support to the BLM protestors in exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest, to forego any legal action to hinder protests, and to support protests in ways that mitigate any risk of COVID-19, for example by providing masks to protesters.
“We call on protest organisers to take every possible measure to avoid virus transmission.”
Around 20,000 people protested against Indigenous deaths in custody in Sydney last weekend, after a ban on the rally was overturned 12 minutes before it was due to start.
NSW Police had initially won an injunction in the Supreme Court on Friday which prohibited the rally from going ahead, but the Court of Appeal overturned it.
The decision meant the gathering was lawful and protesters were immune from prosecution if they breached public health orders.
