Growing legal bill for failed defence of controversial NSW protest laws runs to hundreds of thousands of dollars

Exclusive: Documents show $117,455.50 was spent in a single legal fight over laws rushed through after Bondi attack

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The New South Wales government has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees to unsuccessfully defend constitutional challenges against protest laws that were expected to be struck down.

The costs, outlined in documents obtained by Guardian Australia via freedom of information legislation, include $117,455.50 of taxpayers’ money on a single challenge to controversial public assembly restriction declaration (Pard) laws. Those laws were enacted following the Bondi beach terror attack and were in place during a now infamous rally against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in February.