Danny Lim | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Councillor of the Municipality of Strathfield | |
| In office 13 September 2008 –8 September 2012 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1944 (age 80–81) Japanese Malaya |
| Political party | Independent |
| Residence(s) | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation | Former councillor and electrician |
Danny Lim (born 1944) is an Australian activist and former politician. He is known for wearing political protest signs on a sandwich board.
In 1963 Lim moved from Malaysia to Australia, where he began work as an electrical technician. [1]
In 2008, Lim was elected to Strathfield Council as the lead candidate for an independent ticket, which received 13% of the vote. [2] Lim ran on the policy of "openness, transparency, accountability and morality" in the council, and refused to get paid for his time in office. [3]
During the 2016 Federal election, Lim ran for the Australian Senate and received 0.01% of the vote in New South Wales. [4] He also ran as an Independent for the Legislative Council in the 2019 New South Wales election, gaining 644 votes (0.01%). [5]
Lim was a background actor in the movie Three Thousand Years of Longing. [6] He played a storyteller, with his dog Smarty, attempting to squash the bloodlust of a tyrannical ruler.
Lim's infamous court case (below) over the use of an offensive word on one of his signs was featured in the award-winning short documentary You Can You Cvn't. [7]
Lim features on the album cover of Sticky Fingers Lekkerboy album. [8]
Lim was featured in a cameo in season two of Australian teen drama Heartbreak High. [9] Lim also had a cameo in the 2024 film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and attended the premiere in Sydney. [10]
In 2015, Lim was fined $500 for offensive conduct after publicly wearing a sign which labelled the then prime minister of Australia Tony Abbott a 'C∀nt'. [11] A GoFundMe campaign by supporters raised enough money to cover the fine within less than an hour. [12] However, Lim appealed and was acquitted, that court ruling that the word 'cunt' is not always offensive when said in public, compared to countries like the United States, and that a conviction would have restricted his freedom of political communication implicit in the Constitution. [13] The case was seen by law academic Luke McNamara as a step towards protecting civil liberties. [14]
Lim was arrested for offensive behaviour at Barangaroo in January 2019. [15] This was due to a sign that included the word 'C∀nt', which a court had previously ruled to be legal. Lim commenced legal action against the charge as well as against the police officers who had arrested him. [16] A rally to protest the arrest was reportedly attended by about 300 people. [17] A magistrate dismissed the case on 30 August 2019. [18]
On 22 November 2022, he sustained injuries during an arrest in the Queen Victoria Building, leaving him hospitalised. This arrest was later discontinued. [19] On 24 November 2022, he was released from St Vincent's Hospital with "a plan in place for ongoing monitoring" after suffering bleeding on the brain. [20]
Lim was taken to hospital in April 2023 after an altercation with a security guard at Barangaroo. [21]
On 22 September 2023, Lim was assaulted at Strathfield train station in Sydney by a 66-year-old man while advocating for a 'Yes' vote in the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum. [22] He was treated and taken to the Concord Repatriation General Hospital, where he received a CAT scan and was later reported to have an eye bleed injury. [23] [24]