At a press conference later that day, Minns said “crime doesn’t turn off because a protest is taking place in Sydney”.
“We still have to have police to investigate serious crime in NSW, that’s proven to be incredibly difficult if our resources are tied up policing marches and protests,” he said. [emph. added]
Minns is so obviously talking out of his arse there.
[Police Association of NSW president Kevin Mor(t)on] said protests were treated as a user-pays event in terms of police staffing, but the government picked up the bill. He said he would support legislative changes to make organisers cover the cost.
“We would support any change that saw it entrenched, that any sort of protest would be a user-pay,” he said.