Protest rights are under threat from local councils demanding organisers have public liability cover for rallies, according to the Australian Democracy Network.

In a joint report with Deakin University, the campaign group says protest permits can include “burdensome” conditions, including around insurance and traffic management.

It cites cases where insurance requirements have been imposed, including in Tasmania last month when farmers had to cancel a protest involving tractors because they could not get cover.

The Australian Democracy Network previously raised its concerns in July, when anti-brumby cull activists in Bathurst, NSW, were told by a council they needed up to $20 million public liability insurance for a rally.

Report co-author and the network’s protest rights campaigner, Anastasia Radievska, tells insuranceNEWS.com.au: “The most concerning thing for us is that we’re seeing this [insurance] issue crop up more and more in councils around Australia.

“It’s not just one council or one place … it seems to be perhaps a lack of joint understanding between councils and their insurance around how democratic obligations intersect with the risk management of councils, and the fact that when councils function more as sort of business-like bodies, it’s easy to move away from that democratic mandate, which is their actual core function.”

The report calls for changes to protest permit systems, saying current settings “are largely not compliant with Australia’s obligation to respect and ensure the right to peaceful assembly.”

It says the insurance requirement should be scrapped.

“Across most jurisdictions, protest is unlawful or unprotected without permission from police, councils or place managers … costly insurance and traffic management demands … place the onus on organisers rather than the state,” the report says.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties says the report confirms what human rights advocates and community members have experienced for years.

“NSWCCL has received numerous reports from community members … who have been priced out of their democratic rights by exorbitant insurance and administrative requirements,” it said in a LinkedIn post.

“In some cases, local councils have demanded that individual ratepayers wanting to hold a public assembly pay the council over $2000 directly to expand the council’s own insurance coverage.”

NSWCCL president Tim Roberts says “there is no justification” for the insurance requirement.

“I think what we have is a fundamental failure of political leadership at state and federal levels and I think in that vacuum, it’s not uncommon for a bureaucratic response ... a council doesn’t quite understand, because of their lack of experience in the issue, where the importance of protest is, but you can forgive them for that because of that failing of political leadership.”

He says insurers can help by improving understanding of public liability insurance.

See the report here.