Justice Hollingworth questioned whether the curfew was appropriate,saying:“There’s no particular utility in suggesting that an additional curfew for her serves any purpose”.
Ms Smit’s lawyer,Peter Chadwick,QC,told Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth that police were attempting to use laws,which place conditions on people’s behaviour when they are granted bail,to silence Ms Smit,and that conditions,such as a curfew,were onerous.
“What we submit,Your Honour,is that the conditions being sought by Victoria Police are extraneous to the Bail Act,” he said. “The reasonable view is that the Bail Act provisions are being used to effectively silence Ms Smit.”
“That is not a proper purpose. It is not what the Bail Act can be used for.”
Prosecutor Anthony Albore,arguing for the strict conditions,said Ms Smit was in prison by her own choice,given police did not oppose bail during her first hearing in the Magistrates Court,and it was her choice not to sign the consent form which would grant her release.
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“It’s in my respectful submission,it’s a matter of choice,about why the applicant found herself in this particular position in circumstances where it was open for her to sign the conditions of bail to no longer be remanded in custody.”
Police allege Ms Smit incited people on social media to attend two anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne last month,includingthe violent August 21 event where at least 4000 people demonstrated and where at least nine police officers were injured.
During protests last Saturday,in which 10 police have been injured,six taken to hospital and 235 demonstrators arrested,demonstrators walked the streets and on several occasions chanted “free Monica Smit”.
If found guilty,Ms Smit faces several thousands of dollars in fines.
The anti-lockdown group she helped found,Reignite Democracy Australia,told supporters to tune into the hearing,conducted remotely via livestream at the Victorian Supreme Court. At its peak,more than 6500 people were watching.
Court documents state that in the lead-up to the August 11 protest,Ms Smit posted that “lockdowns take lives” and urged people to demonstrate.
Ms Smit,a self-described journalist,was arrested in Brighton in late August,not long after filming herself talking about small-scale anti-lockdown protests.
Once Ms Smit signs the new bail orders handed down by Justice Hollingsworth she will be free to return home.
She faces a further two charges of breaching the Chief Health Officer’s directions by attending a protest in Melbourne on October 31 last year. She is next due to face court on November 10.
With Adam Cooper
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