A FORMER Oxley High School student was this week at the forefront of a high-profile legal challenge to laws giving Sydney police extended powers to arrest and fine “annoying” people.

The Federal Court ruled this week that some elements of special World Youth Day laws limited free speech.

One of the political activists responsible for the challenge to the NSW State Government laws was former Tamworth woman Amber Pike.

Ms Pike, 21, is a member of socialist organisation Resistance.

She and another member, Rachel Evans, challenged aspects of the laws in the Federal Court, notably a clause which referred to “conduct that causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event”.

Annoying a pilgrim was to have carried fines of up to $5500.

The laws were put in place for the month of July.

“The new regulations that they brought in for World Youth Day ... took away a lot of civil liberties,” Ms Pike said yesterday.

“The regulations were also quite vague, saying that people can be fined up to $5000 for being

annoying.

“That meant handing stuff out but, even things like skateboarding could be classified as being annoying.”

The court ruled laws banning the sale of items such as stickers, badges and t-shirts was constitutional.

“We’re part of the NoToPope coalition, and we’re having a protest on Saturday, so the new regulations challenged our right to freedom of speech,” Ms Pike said.

The NoToPope coalition opposed the church stance on contraception and same-sex relationships.

This is the second time that the State Government has put special restrictions in place to accommodate a major event.

“Last year when George Bush came to town they put similar laws in place, and they had to be

challenged.”

Ms Pike, who graduated from Oxley High School in 2002, is studying nursing at the University of Technology in Sydney.

She said there had been little time to consider the ramifications of the legal challenge.

“It was quite fast because World Youth Day is happening. It started yesterday,” she said,

“The court case was quite quick. They had the hearing on Friday and the verdict came back Tuesday.”

Ms Pike said the group was not necessarily looking to antagonise every single Catholic visitor during a protest planned for this weekend.

“Not everyone celebrating World Youth Day is really conservative,” she said.