# The Herzog protest inquiry police wanted kept private

An episode of [7am](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1461999702), 18 Oct 2026, 17 min.

Audio: https://p.podderapp.com/2544644999/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2fb3740d-3436-44af-8cc0-a91900716aa5/62723a1f-3e96-4fc4-882c-b25e0181da4d/c9448a43-16aa-4523-b340-b4e5004c6afc/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=70f29d90-2a63-48aa-bf8f-b25e0181da70

On February 9, thousands of people gathered at Sydney Town Hall to protest the visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog. They wanted to march to state parliament, but police were blocking their way. The scenes that followed were shocking: 10 officers and dozens of protesters – some in their 70s and 80s – were injured in the violent clashes that unfolded. Now, after hundreds of complaints of police brutality, the law enforcement watchdog is today opening its investigation into what officers did, how the operation was planned and who gave the orders. Today, Managing Partner at Marque Lawyers, Michael Bradley, on who should be held accountable for the violence at Town Hall – and why NSW Police fought to keep the investigation behind closed doors. If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support. Socials: Stay in touch with us on Instagram Guest: Managing partner at Marque Lawyers, Michael Bradley Photo: AAP Image/Flavio Brancaleone See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:15] Speaker 1: On February 9, thousands of people gathered at Sydney Town
[0:18] Speaker 1: Hall to protest the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
[0:22] Speaker 1: They wanted to march to state parliament, but police were
[0:26] Speaker 1: blocking the way. The scenes that followed were shocking. Ten
[0:30] Speaker 1: officers and dozens of protesters, some in their 70s and 80s,
[0:35] Speaker 1: were injured in the violent clash that unfolded.
[0:37] Speaker 2: I'm not saying that the circumstances or the scenes on
[0:40] Speaker 2: television are perfect. I accept that they're not, but it
[0:42] Speaker 2: would have been far worse if police lines were breached.
[0:45] Speaker 2: Police did their duty.
[0:47] Speaker 1: Now, after hundreds of complaints of police brutality, the Law
[0:50] Speaker 1: Enforcement Watchdog is today opening its investigation into what officers did,
[0:55] Speaker 1: how the operation was planned and who gave the orders.
[1:03] Speaker 1: I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to 7am. Today, managing
[1:07] Speaker 1: partner at Mark Lawyers, Michael Bradley, on who should be
[1:10] Speaker 1: held accountable for the violence at Town Hall and why
[1:13] Speaker 1: New South Wales Police fought to keep the investigation behind
[1:16] Speaker 1: closed doors. It's Monday, October 19. Michael, can we begin
[1:28] Speaker 1: by going back to February? So the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog,
[1:33] Speaker 1: he's visiting Australia. Thousands of people gathered at Sydney Town
[1:37] Speaker 1: Hall to protest. And as that protest unfolded, we saw
[1:42] Speaker 1: police officers rush into the crowd. We saw officers punching people.
[1:46] Speaker 1: We saw Muslim worshippers who were dragged away while praying.
[1:50] Speaker 1: Can you talk me through those few hours in Sydney?
[1:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean.
[1:56] Speaker 3: Obviously, there's a lot of accounts, eyewitness accounts and media
[1:59] Speaker 3: accounts of what happened. I got lifted off the ground.
[2:05] Speaker 3: And then you can see in the video, as I'm
[2:07] Speaker 3: trying to regain my balance, another police officer punches me
[2:11] Speaker 3: in the head. And, you know, the backdrop was quite
[2:15] Speaker 3: a fraught one with all of the focus on Herzog's visit.
[2:20] Speaker 3: And it's pretty clear that the police were very primed
[2:23] Speaker 3: and they were there in very large numbers. The speakers
[2:28] Speaker 3: were pretty passionate and the crowd was quite animated. But
[2:36] Speaker 3: there was no reports of violence from within the crowd itself.
[2:41] Speaker 3: It was a much bigger crowd than had been anticipated.
[2:43] Speaker 3: According to media accounts, there were considerable discussions between the organisers.
[2:50] Speaker 3: and some other political representatives who were there with senior
[2:54] Speaker 3: police on the ground trying to work out what to
[2:57] Speaker 3: do because there was, you know, the crowd wanted to
[2:59] Speaker 3: march at the end of the rally, as you would expect.
[3:02] Speaker 3: The police were adamant that that would not happen and
[3:06] Speaker 3: wanted the crowd to disperse and gave directions for that.
[3:10] Speaker 3: But it seems that there was a combination of some
[3:13] Speaker 3: parts of the crowd attempting to begin a march and
[3:16] Speaker 3: then at the other ends of the space... people's attempts
[3:21] Speaker 3: to disperse were also blocked and so effectively for whatever
[3:26] Speaker 3: reason the police were encircling the crowd and compacting it
[3:32] Speaker 3: and engaging in pretty graphic violence against individuals including some
[3:38] Speaker 3: of those quite well-known instances.
[3:40] Speaker 4: Like the guy with the bike and the Muslim people
[3:45] Speaker 4: in prayer being pulled up and arrested. 27 people had
[3:53] Speaker 4: charges laid against them. Presumably, there were some acts of
[3:58] Speaker 4: violence towards police, although there's much less detail about that.
[4:03] Speaker 4: But there is a lot of video footage of police
[4:06] Speaker 4: engaging in quite extreme violence against Pegloo. It seems clearly
[4:10] Speaker 4: not presenting a threat to them or to anyone else.
[4:14] Speaker 1: And you said that because of the conditions, this was...
[4:18] Speaker 1: in a sense, primed to happen. So there were laws
[4:22] Speaker 1: in place on that day, laws that were passed after
[4:25] Speaker 1: Bondi that restricted the ability of protesters to march without
[4:29] Speaker 1: being arrested. And then there was also these extended powers
[4:33] Speaker 1: granted to New South Wales police just a couple of
[4:35] Speaker 1: days before the protests that were in place for the
[4:40] Speaker 1: duration of Herzog's visit. So tell me a bit about
[4:44] Speaker 1: what had really changed there in terms of what protesters
[4:48] Speaker 1: could and couldn't do and what police were authorised to do.
[4:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's important to understand the backdrop of
[4:55] Speaker 3: protest laws in New South Wales, which were unusually repressive
[4:58] Speaker 3: before all this began. For example, without a permit in
[5:04] Speaker 3: New South Wales, you can't have a rally outside Town
[5:08] Speaker 3: Hall without committing a criminal offence because it's a public
[5:11] Speaker 3: thoroughfare and you will be blocking traffic or pedestrians. And
[5:15] Speaker 3: that's illegal. You can do it without the permit, but
[5:19] Speaker 3: you're then exposed and the police have very wide powers
[5:22] Speaker 3: to break it up, to move you on, to arrest you, etc.
[5:25] Speaker 3: So that's already one of the most extremely restrictive legal
[5:32] Speaker 3: structures in the country, or in the Western world, frankly,
[5:36] Speaker 3: against free assembly and protest.
[5:39] Speaker 2: Today I'm standing with the Attorney-General and the Police Minister
[5:41] Speaker 2: to nominate a series of reforms that we'll introduce to
[5:44] Speaker 2: the New South Wales Parliament on Monday in a few days' time.
[5:48] Speaker 3: In the aftermath of Bondi, the New South Wales Government
[5:51] Speaker 3: had introduced a law which gave the Police Commissioner the
[5:55] Speaker 3: power to declare any part of the state basically a
[5:59] Speaker 3: restricted zone.
[6:01] Speaker 2: No public assemblies in the designated area will be able
[6:03] Speaker 2: to be authorised, including by a court.
[6:05] Speaker 3: Where all forms of public assemblies are not prohibited but
[6:10] Speaker 3: will be absolutely not protected. And in the aftermath of Bondi,
[6:14] Speaker 3: the police commissioner declared almost the whole of Sydney to
[6:17] Speaker 3: be such a zone. So it effectively restrained protest marches,
[6:22] Speaker 3: protest rallies, any form of gathering in Sydney anywhere. And
[6:27] Speaker 3: when the Herzog, anti-Herzog rally took place, that was still
[6:32] Speaker 3: in force. Now, that law was then also declared unconstitutional,
[6:37] Speaker 3: so it no longer exists. But it was in effect
[6:39] Speaker 3: at the time it gave the police even more more
[6:42] Speaker 3: extensive powers than they already have. It gave them powers
[6:46] Speaker 3: of search without warrant, and it basically authorised them to
[6:51] Speaker 3: take much more extreme measures to break up protest activity
[6:55] Speaker 3: or anything that they deemed to be potentially unsafe. It's
[6:59] Speaker 3: understandable that the police themselves were grappling with this new
[7:04] Speaker 3: legal regime. It was brand new and unprecedented. But one
[7:08] Speaker 3: gets the impression that they were very aware that they
[7:11] Speaker 3: had been empowered by the rhetoric of the Minsk government. And,
[7:16] Speaker 3: you know, the Premier in particular had been out there saying...
[7:20] Speaker 3: This is inappropriate. You cannot do this. We will have
[7:23] Speaker 3: the cops there. Don't do this.
[7:24] Speaker 2: New South Wales Police will have a massive policing presence
[7:27] Speaker 2: on Monday afternoon. We reiterate our call that if you
[7:31] Speaker 2: don't need to be in Sydney CBD on Monday afternoon,
[7:34] Speaker 2: unless it's absolutely essential, we ask that you not stick
[7:38] Speaker 2: around in that area.
[7:39] Speaker 3: And the government, both federal and state governments, were supportive
[7:44] Speaker 3: of Herzog. Well, they invited him. He was their special guest.
[7:48] Speaker 3: they were defensive of him as a symbol, you know,
[7:51] Speaker 3: to the extent that protest against Herzog was being pretty
[7:55] Speaker 3: openly characterised as dangerous hate speech and likely to incite violence,
[8:01] Speaker 3: particularly against Jewish people.
[8:04] Speaker 2: Okay.
[8:04] Speaker 1: And so in the wake of the protests, the police watchdog,
[8:08] Speaker 1: so the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission, the LEC, it announced
[8:12] Speaker 1: it would investigate what had happened. Its inquiry opens today.
[8:16] Speaker 1: It received more than 800 complaints about the operation and
[8:21] Speaker 1: it reviewed, I think, over 1,000 hours of CCTV footage
[8:25] Speaker 1: from the protests from around that area. Can you tell
[8:29] Speaker 1: me a bit about what LEC's stated purpose is here
[8:32] Speaker 1: with this inquiry and who is going to be questioned?
[8:36] Speaker 3: They're looking into the conduct of the police at the
[8:40] Speaker 3: protest in terms of whether there was excessive violence, whether
[8:44] Speaker 3: they overreached their powers. whether their use of pepper spray
[8:48] Speaker 3: was appropriate, whether they made things worse by the way
[8:52] Speaker 3: that they responded. And also, interestingly, they specifically flagged that
[8:58] Speaker 3: they're going to be looking at not just the conduct,
[9:01] Speaker 3: but the training of the public order and riot squad
[9:04] Speaker 3: who were presumably very prominent in what happened. And from
[9:09] Speaker 3: what I've read, apparently that comes from a private interview
[9:12] Speaker 3: they've already conducted with an officer or a senior officer
[9:16] Speaker 3: within that squad. So it suggests that they've come across
[9:21] Speaker 3: something that's worried them, not just in terms of sort
[9:24] Speaker 3: of what happened or what individual cops did on the day,
[9:28] Speaker 3: but something more systemic and structural within that particular part
[9:32] Speaker 3: of the police force whose job it is to respond
[9:36] Speaker 3: to major public outbreaks of violence or this kind of thing. Okay,
[9:41] Speaker 3: so how.
[9:42] Speaker 1: Far up the chain of command then could this investigation
[9:45] Speaker 1: go in terms of trying to work out that question
[9:48] Speaker 1: of what orders police were under?
[9:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, I expect they'll go pretty high. I think they've
[9:53] Speaker 3: indicated they'll be going at least up to assistant commissioner level,
[9:57] Speaker 3: which I think is two layers associated. seniority down from
[10:01] Speaker 3: the commissioner. I wouldn't be surprised if ultimately the commissioner
[10:05] Speaker 3: himself ends up being interviewed, because it would be very
[10:10] Speaker 3: difficult and I think impossible to separate out what individual
[10:14] Speaker 3: police did, what their supervisors instructed them or didn't instruct
[10:18] Speaker 3: them to do, what their instructions from above were, what
[10:21] Speaker 3: the sort of strategic plan of the police was. I
[10:25] Speaker 3: don't think all of that can be separated out from
[10:28] Speaker 3: the bigger context, which included the police commissioner's declaration under
[10:32] Speaker 3: that unconstitutional law. And I don't see how the commission
[10:37] Speaker 3: could kind of get to the bottom of how did
[10:39] Speaker 3: this all happen. If things went wrong, and it seems
[10:42] Speaker 3: pretty obvious things went wrong, to understand fully why that
[10:47] Speaker 3: happened and end hopefully prevent or mitigate the risk of
[10:52] Speaker 3: that happening again in future that sort of political legal
[10:56] Speaker 3: context I think would need to be brought in and
[10:58] Speaker 3: the commissioner is the person who's going to know best
[11:01] Speaker 3: about that because he made that decision so yeah you
[11:04] Speaker 3: know I think that'd be good if he is giving
[11:07] Speaker 3: evidence that that'll be up to the commission.
[11:12] Speaker 1: Still to come was it policing or politics that fueled the.
[11:15] Speaker 2: Clash Police were put in an impossible situation last night.
[11:30] Speaker 2: It's worth remembering they did everything possible to avoid that confrontation,
[11:35] Speaker 2: starting last week when they begged protest organisers to have
[11:39] Speaker 2: it in Hyde Park where it was safe and a
[11:41] Speaker 2: march could take place. I know that some of the
[11:43] Speaker 2: scenes on television and on social media are short clips,
[11:47] Speaker 2: but people have to understand the circumstances where protesters breached
[11:51] Speaker 2: police lines and ran amok in Sydney would have been devastating.
[11:55] Speaker 1: Michael, government and senior police, they are publicly standing by
[11:59] Speaker 1: the operation at Sydney Town Hall, and there has already
[12:03] Speaker 1: been a fight over these hearings. So the police commissioner,
[12:06] Speaker 1: Mal Onion, he made this last-minute attempt to have these
[12:10] Speaker 1: proceedings behind closed doors instead of publicly. What did you
[12:15] Speaker 1: make of that, the idea that New South Wales police
[12:18] Speaker 1: didn't want to answer questions about this protest in public? public,
[12:22] Speaker 1: especially given that the protest itself and everything that happened,
[12:25] Speaker 1: the actions police took, it obviously all happened in public view.
[12:29] Speaker 3: I think, I mean, it's a terrible look. It smells
[12:32] Speaker 3: very much of cover-up. The Commission's decided that they are
[12:39] Speaker 3: going to hold quite a lot of the proceedings privately.
[12:43] Speaker 3: So most of the interviews, all of the interviews with
[12:47] Speaker 3: police up to the rank and inspector, so that sort
[12:50] Speaker 3: of operational level, and all of the citizen witnesses, all
[12:55] Speaker 3: of those interviews will be conducted in private. So it'll
[12:57] Speaker 3: only be the senior police, that sort of executive level,
[13:01] Speaker 3: at the moment, those interviews are going to be public.
[13:04] Speaker 3: From an optics point of view or PR point of view,
[13:06] Speaker 3: you'd think it'd be better for them to be going, yeah,
[13:08] Speaker 3: let's have this all out in public. You know, we
[13:10] Speaker 3: defend what we did and we're happy to be held
[13:13] Speaker 3: to account for it. I mean, if you ask them,
[13:15] Speaker 3: they'd probably say, you know, if they were being honest,
[13:17] Speaker 3: they'd probably say, look, from our perspective, it's a witch hunt.
[13:21] Speaker 3: you know, you try doing our job. It's really hard
[13:24] Speaker 3: when you're down on street level with people screaming in
[13:27] Speaker 3: your face and dogs barking and whatever. It's hard to
[13:32] Speaker 3: make the right decisions all the time in the instant
[13:35] Speaker 3: and walk a mile in the shoes of a policeman
[13:38] Speaker 3: before you decide to criticise them, that kind of thing.
[13:41] Speaker 3: And there's merit to that.
[13:44] Speaker 1: Well, let's talk a bit about accountability because the LEC,
[13:47] Speaker 1: I mean, it can investigate what police did that night,
[13:50] Speaker 1: but the decision to impose these restrictions in the first place,
[13:54] Speaker 1: they were political decisions, not police decisions. So is there
[13:58] Speaker 1: a danger here that we're scrutinising the police response without
[14:02] Speaker 1: questioning the decisions that put those officers and protesters, everyone
[14:07] Speaker 1: in that position in the first place?
[14:09] Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's really important that we
[14:14] Speaker 3: be very clear about who we're holding to account and
[14:17] Speaker 3: for what. It may well be that individual police officers
[14:22] Speaker 3: engaged in acts of brutal violence without provocation way beyond
[14:27] Speaker 3: any reasonable justification, and they should be held to account
[14:30] Speaker 3: for that in a disciplinary way and potentially criminally. If
[14:34] Speaker 3: they've committed acts of assault, then they can be prosecuted
[14:37] Speaker 3: for it. But we shouldn't prejudge those things. They should
[14:41] Speaker 3: be properly investigated. But we should also consider be prepared
[14:45] Speaker 3: to interrogate the context in which this arose and the
[14:50] Speaker 3: responsibility and potential culpabilities that others may have for creating
[14:59] Speaker 3: or allowing an unnecessary environment to be created. But as
[15:06] Speaker 3: I said, I think, you know, I don't know how
[15:08] Speaker 3: you can really separate what happened from that political context,
[15:14] Speaker 3: because it was a political decision to try to stop
[15:17] Speaker 3: people from protesting and assembling in New South Wales. In
[15:23] Speaker 3: the name of social cohesion, it clearly had the opposite effect.
[15:27] Speaker 3: It has been divisive and violent. And if we don't
[15:32] Speaker 3: want that kind of thing to happen again, then we
[15:34] Speaker 3: would benefit from an open interrogation of that.
[15:39] Speaker 2: And Yeah.
[15:42] Speaker 1: Well, Michael, thank you so much for speaking with me.
[15:45] Speaker 4: Pleasure.
[16:02] Speaker 1: Also in the news, more than 1,200 people have been
[16:04] Speaker 1: arrested as protesters clashed with police across France over the weekend.
[16:09] Speaker 1: While hundreds of thousands of people protested peacefully over education
[16:13] Speaker 1: and the cost of living, some fringe groups set buildings
[16:15] Speaker 1: alight in Lyon and stormed a government building in Marseille.
[16:19] Speaker 1: Police fired tear gas in some confrontations, French President Emmanuel
[16:23] Speaker 1: Macron vowing to prosecute and punish those responsible for attacking
[16:26] Speaker 1: police and looting supermarkets. And new analysis of One Nation's
[16:33] Speaker 1: plan to severely cut migration has found it would keep
[16:36] Speaker 1: our budget in deficit for more than 10 years, and
[16:39] Speaker 1: drive up national debt by $ 275 billion. The analysis from
[16:43] Speaker 1: the Sydney Morning Herald also showed the Coalition's migration cuts
[16:46] Speaker 1: would mean $ 150 billion more debt in a decade.
[16:50] Speaker 3: I'm Ruby Jones.
[16:51] Speaker 1: This is 7am.
[16:52] Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.

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