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Thou shalt not annoy on Youth Day

EXTRAORDINARY new powers will allow police to arrest and fine people for “causing annoyance” to World Youth Day participants and permit partial strip searches at hundreds of Sydney sites, beginning today.

The laws, which operate until the end of July, have the potential to make a crime of wearing a T-shirt with a message on it, undertaking a Chaser-style stunt, handing out condoms at protests, riding a skateboard or even playing music, critics say.

Police and volunteers from the State Emergency Service and Rural Fire Service will be able to direct people to cease engaging in conduct that “causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event”. People who fail to comply will be subject to a $5500 fine.

Civil libertarians said they had never seen anything like the new powers and believed they are more extreme and broader in scope than those used during last year’s APEC summit and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.