Page 3556 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 23 November 2021
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Sergeio, aged 22, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, six months no parole, for taking nonviolent direct action as part of the Blockade Australia mobilisation in Newcastle. He was protesting about a coal port.
These are prosecutions against activists that are brave enough to stand up against the export of dirty coal out of the largest coal port in the world. Draconian anti-protest laws were put in place by the Liberal Baird government in 2016 specifically to attack environmental protesters. Those laws are an indictment of how cosy the fossil fuel industry is with the Liberal Party.
The Liberal Party claim they believe in the rights and freedoms of all people, but it is freedoms for some and silence for others. Where people stand up against them and their donors, they use the full force of the state against them.
Blockade Australia are standing up and fighting back against decades of climate inaction from state and federal Liberal governments. They are drawing from a long history of peaceful protest effecting political change. They are taking direct action to prevent coal exports from reaching the port of Newcastle.
The Greens fundamentally believe in the right to peaceful protest. It is essential for a free and democratic society. Environmental groups, unions, First Nations people, suffragettes and many more groups have frequently used these methods. Our modern democracy is built on civil disobedience and standing up against entrenched power to create a better future.
In the wake of COP 26 and in a climate crisis, protesting against coal is a rational action to take. It is an essential action to take, and it is ridiculous to be locked up, under such a draconian law.
We have a lot of protest movements right here in the ACT, and I am really proud that we have strong laws in place here to protect them and to allow peaceful protest. I am really glad to be part of a state parliament that supports peaceful protest and democracy.
If you are frightened of your political critics, you should not seek to silence them. You should make better policies that you can stand behind, and you should win the debate.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
The Assembly adjourned at 6.10 pm.
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