An activist who came to national attention after being punched by a police officer while protesting, has had an anti-protest charge dismissed in court today.
Hannah Thomas was arrested for taking part in a different protest in Newcastle last year.
Climate Defenders Australia say she is a former Greens candidate and was arrested at the Rising Tide People’s Blockade on 28 November 2025. ‘Thousands of people entered the water near the Port of Newcastle, the world’s biggest coal export port, protesting coal’s role in driving climate change’.
‘As Europe swelters through a record-breaking, killer heatwave, NSW Police are taking peaceful protesters to court for sounding the alarm on climate collapse,” said Ms Thomas. ‘The real threat to our future is a system that profits from climate destruction and war, not those who protest it.’
Climate Defenders Australia say, ‘She faced Newcastle court today charged with entering/remaining on and seriously disrupting or obstructing the use of a major facility. That charge falls under an anti-protest provision introduced in 2022 that carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment. She had pleaded guilty to the charge’.
‘However, Judge Caleb Franklin dismissed the charge with no conviction recorded and an order for Ms Thomas to be on good behaviour for 12 months’.
‘Today’s outcome is welcome – but the threat of imprisonment should never have been a possibility and would have been unthinkable in Australia only a few years ago. Hannah Thomas should never have faced the prospect of time in jail for participating in a peaceful protest,’ said Julia Grix, the Executive Director and Principal Solicitor of Climate Defenders Australia. She was part of the legal team that ran a successful constitutional challenge to the anti-protest laws before the NSW Supreme Court in 2023.
‘Climate Defenders Australia is proud to represent peaceful protesters like Hannah Thomas and will continue to see these cases through the courts to defend the rights of concerned citizens involved in this event,’ Ms Grix said.
The 2025 People’s Blockade was the largest mobilisation Rising Tide has ever done. With over 8,000 people involved, and at least 130 arrested.
‘I’m proud to have been part of a mass movement willing to put their bodies and liberties on the line to disrupt the coal and gas industry,’ Ms Thomas said.
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