Rising Tide vows to proceed with ‘protestival’ blockade at Newcastle coal port despite losing legal fight

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/07/newcastle-rising-tide-coal-blockade-protest-police-win-legal-challenge

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Protest plan involves activists paddling out on kayaks and rafts to stop fossil fuel exports

Climate protesters have vowed to stick to their plan to blockade the Port of Newcastle, despite the New South Wales police winning a legal challenge in their attempt to stop it.

“The [protest] will go ahead,” Rising Tide’s organiser, Zach Schofield, told reporters on Thursday. “We do have a right to assemble on public land and water, and we will be exercising that right, because it is critical for democracy.”

On Thursday, NSW police won a legal challenge in the supreme court against the protest, with the judge citing the interruption to the port as an “imposition”.

The protest plan involves activists paddling into the port on kayaks and rafts in late November to stop coal exports from leaving for 30 hours.

The group called the protest the “People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port”. A four-day “protestival” was expected to attract 5,500 demonstrators, taking place alongside the blockade.

Last week police launched the challenge against the group’s form one application to hold a public assembly – which would protect demonstrators from prosecution while blocking the waterway – citing safety concerns, the interference with other members of the public’s right to use the space, and the disruption to the coal industry.

On Thursday Justice Desmond Fagan issued a prohibition order, which means the protesters will not be protected from being charged with obstruction and unlawful assembly offences.

Last year Rising Tide blockaded the port for the same amount of time, with police accepting the form one application.

But the blockade lasted beyond the agreed deadline, leading to 109 arrests. This drew international media attention, with a 97-year-old church minister among those charged.

In his judgment, Fagan said the evidence showed it was “highly likely, to the point of near certainty” that the protesters had planned to stay beyond the agreed deadline again to draw maximum attention to their cause.

He expressed safety concerns but noted the organisers had “taken a responsible approach to on-water safety”.

He also determined the impact on others was “excessive”.

“A 30-hour interruption to the operations of a busy port is an imposition on the lawful activities of others that goes far beyond what the people affected should be expected to tolerate in order to facilitate public expression of protest and opinion,” Fagan said.

Schofield told reporters that organisers were “committed” to going ahead and would be carefully reading the judgment to plan next steps.

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Last year’s protest was attended by a number of members of the Greens party, including the federal leader, Adam Bandt, and former leader Bob Brown.

“I’d invite Chris Minns to come down and have a great time with us,” Schofield said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun on the water.

“I hope [police] do their job and facilitate a peaceful protest, which is what they’re meant to do in a democratic state.”

The assistant police commissioner, Dave Waddell, told the court that in the event it issued a prohibition order and the protest went ahead, then police would arrest protesters as soon as they entered the channel.

Rising Tide is demanding the government immediately cancel all new fossil fuel projects and end all coal exports from Newcastle by 2030.

It is calling for the government to tax fossil fuel export profits at 78%, and to put that money towards community and industrial transition away from fossil fuels.

A number of civil rights organisations have criticised NSW police for taking legal action against the protest, saying it undermines the right to freedom of assembly.

Lydia Shelley, the president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said: “Our rights and our civil liberties are only as strong as our ability to exercise them without intervention by New South Wales Police.”

“We desperately need a state-based charter of rights that will protect the right to protest.”