NSW Police have formally withdrawn charges against 125 protesters from Rising Tide’s 2024 People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port, which organisers say was one of the largest civil disobedience protests in Australian history.
At Newcastle Local Court on Friday, 125 people each faced two charges under the Crimes and Marine Safety Acts, including the ‘anti-protest laws’ which carry a maximum penalty of $22,000 fine or two years in prison.
This group comprised the majority of the 173 people arrested at the 2024 People’s Blockade. All but three of the remaining 48 have had their matters resolved already, including eight who had their charges dismissed, with police ordered to pay $73,000 in costs after the police lost the first test trial last October.
Defendants in the three remaining matters await judgment following their June trial, with the matter listed for September.
Action needed to deal with crisis
Rising Tide spokesperson and one of the arrestees, Naomi Hodgson said, ‘People are taking these actions because governments continue to approve and consider new coal projects while the climate crisis worsens.
‘As long as governments fail to deliver a credible plan to phase out coal and support workers through the transition, communities will continue to step in and demand action.
‘Nobody wants hundreds of peaceful people facing criminal charges for trying to protect their future. This was never fundamentally a law-and-order issue. It is the consequence of governments failing to respond to the climate crisis with the urgency it demands. Until there is a serious, just plan to move beyond coal, this movement will continue to grow,’ she said.
‘This is what a mass movement for a safe climate future looks like. And the Minns government needs to understand that until there is an urgent and just plan to support workers and transition away from coal, we will continue to see this type of action become bigger and bigger.’
Government’s actions undemocratic
Dr Elizabeth Manning, a neuroscientist from Newcastle who was arrested at the 2024 People’s Blockade, said, ‘I think it’s clear from this that the government’s attempts to squash the right to protest are undemocratic and not in line with the law.
‘If the government engaged in meaningful discussions around the pathway to climate action these actions wouldn’t be needed.’
Dr Peter Schofield, a neurologist from Newcastle who was also arrested, said ‘It is great news that all charges have been dropped against protestors at the 2024 Peoples’ Blockade.
‘We all know there is a climate crisis and that what we do now – or do not do – has huge implications for the future of our planet. That is why I was arrested at the blockade.
‘As a doctor, if I diagnose what is making a person sick, I am professionally and ethically bound to give the appropriate treatment. Governmental failure to respond forcefully to the climate crisis – to do what we know needs to be done – is hugely irresponsible and needs to be called out.’
Julia Grix, the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Defenders Australia, who are representing 110 clients, said ‘Police should have withdrawn these charges long ago, once it was clear they could not make out the cases against them.
‘Australia leads the world for arresting climate protestors. That statistic alone is alarming – but it captures nothing of the long, anxious road that follows for those who then have to navigate the criminal justice system. Here, more than one hundred people have spent almost two years waiting for justice.’
MLC Sue Higginson responds
Greens MP, Solicitor and Climate Change Spokesperson Sue Higginson said, ‘This result is hot on the heels of the latest Net Zero Commission Progress Report which identified coal mining emissions as a likely cause for NSW failing to reduce emissions in line with NSW Labor’s climate laws.
‘The Net Zero Commission has already told the government that extensions or expansions to coal mining in NSW are inconsistent with the Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement. Ending coal must be a priority for the Minns Labor Government and their attention should be on that instead of trying to punish the community who are doing what good people have always done and that is protest, against coal exports.
‘Independent and expert legal advice is clear, no more coal can be approved in NSW under existing laws,’ said Ms Higginson.
‘Premier Chris Minns must stop his law and order response to climate change, accept that the community is legitimately expressing their concerns, and get his government to stop any more coal from being mined and exported in NSW.’
Big win
Newcastle city councillor Siobhan Isherwood said, ‘This is a big win for peaceful protest and for climate action, our communities are sick of the over-policing of peaceful protests, and the waste of police resources is also wasting the time of the courts.
‘The people that faced court today are ordinary people from all over Australia who are simply fighting for a better future for us all, and us Novocastrians have a long history of peaceful, effective protest.
‘The Rising Tide blockades are a peaceful and powerful demonstration of the power of people who are willing to stand up for the planet when government won’t,’ she said.
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