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More than 100 climate protesters will plead not guilty to offences under New South Wales’ controversial anti-protest laws, with campaigners claiming it could become the largest climate protest defence case in Australia.
Last year, 173 people were arrested after they allegedly entered the Port of Newcastle on kayaks and rafts to blockade the coal port – the largest in the world.
The NSW supreme court had earlier allowed police to deny the protesters’ form 1 application, meaning they were not protected from being charged under obstruction and unlawful assembly offences.
A separate attempt by the state government to enact an exclusion zone around the port in November was deemed invalid by the court as an improper use of the Marine Safety Act.
Organisers say police charged 130 of the activists under anti-protest laws which carry a maximum of two years in jail or a $22,000 fine. Over Monday and Tuesday, all 130 will enter not guilty pleas in Newcastle local court.
“The anti-protest laws are over the top and they need to be challenged,” said 21-year-old Alexa Stuart, who is a spokesperson for Rising Tide and not among those charged.
“That’s why 130 people will be pleading not guilty. While Australians are counting the cost in billions of dollars of climate-supercharged damage caused by Cyclone Alfred, the Labor government continues to pour fuel on the climate fire with every new coal and gas approval.”
Stuart said those arrested last year were angry at the government’s “lack of response to the climate crisis”. Of those not charged under the anti-protest laws, 29 were fined under the Marine Safety Act for obstructing a vessel and 14 were aged under 18 and weren’t charged.
The Greens said in September last year that the Albanese government had approved 26 new coal and gas projects since it was elected. The federal climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has said the country wants to become a “renewable energy superpower” but such a big task would take time.
Stuart said “we’re seeing increasing attempts by the government and police to repress climate protest”.
“The ALP needs to learn that you can’t arrest your way out of a climate crisis,” she said.
“The issue of hundreds of everyday people engaging in civil disobedience is not going away until the government stops approving new coal and gas projects and starts funding an urgent and just transition for fossil fuel workers.”
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Over the past two decades, there have been 49 laws introduced by state and federal governments eroding rights to protest, according to a report released by the Human Rights Law Centre in June.
NSW has introduced the most. Sections of the anti-protest laws introduced by the former Coalition government in 2022 were found by the supreme court in 2023 to be unconstitutional.
In February, the Minns government passed a new anti-protest measure that one Labor MP called the most “draconian” anti-protest measure in decades. It gives police broad powers to move on protesters “near” a place of worship – regardless of whether the protest was directed at the place of worship.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has said he does not believe the broad nature of the new laws has left them open to misuse, and that the Labor MP’s comments were “hyperbole”.
“We do put a lot of trust in NSW police, and I believe that they exercise it judiciously.”
Comment was sought from the NSW government.
