A total of 156 people were arrested during the Rising Tide protests, which closed the world’s biggest coal port at Newcastle. Wendy Bacon was one of them.
Rising Tide is demanding Federal and State governments cease approving new coal and gas projects, and for existing coal exports to be taxed at 78% to fund transition for those whose current employment depends on the coal industry.
In all, 156 protesters were arrested during last weekend’s protests and will appear in court in January. These cases will be added to the backlog of 120 cases from the 2024 blockade. The 2024 protesters have pleaded not guilty to charges under the notorious anti-protest Crimes Act section that carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment for non-violent protest.
Four other protesters charged under the same laws had their cases dismissed in October due to a lack of reliable police evidence.
They came from afar
Thousands of protesters had travelled to Newcastle’s Foreshore Beach from as far away as Port Douglas and Adelaide. Despite a three-day marine exclusion zone being imposed by NSW Minister for Transport John Graham, and a massive use of police resources on water and land, they swam and kayaked past the yellow exclusion zone buoys into the channel on Saturday and Sunday.
Sixteen more locked onto coal loaders on Monday.
Several allies in the Greenpeace movement abseiled a “Phase out Coal and Gas” banner down the side of a Chinese coal ship while others painted ‘Timeline Now’ on its hull. They had friendly discussions about energy with Chinese seamen until they were taken away by helicopter.
On board the Greenpeace boat were two musicians from well-known band Lime Cordiale, who had performed at the Rising Tide concert on the previous evening.
Climate protests to continue despite 170 charged in Newcastle ‘protestival’
A law against protests
A number of civil society groups opposed the NSW Anti-Protest laws for denying the democratic right to protest when they were passed.
But while the arrests are significant, the real story is that the NSW government’s vow to stop the annual Rising Tide protests has failed miserably.
Last week, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley condemned the protest, saying anyone who breaches marine exclusion zones will be arrested. “Anyone who engages in unlawful activity will face immediate, decisive enforcement action. Your actions carry consequences, including arrest and very real risks to your life,” she said.
The NSW Police stated that there would be ‘zero tolerance’ for protesters who entered the exclusion zone. Zero-tolerance policing aims to create an environment where every violation of a specific law will lead to arrest and punishment.
But that’s not what happened in practice.
Instead, what happened was the arbitrary use of police discretion to arrest or not, and to cherry-pick which charges to lay. Hundreds took to the water, intending to be arrested. But only some of them were arrested.
Knitting Nannas
In their own words, the Knitting Nannas
sit, knit, plot, have a yarn and a cuppa, and bear witness to the war against the greedy, short-sighted corporations.
They regularly protest against fossil fuel projects and injustice. More than fifty of them joined this year’s Rising Tide ‘Protestival’. Three Knitting Nannas, plus another protester dressed as a clown, took a boat into the channel on Saturday.
Image courtesy knittingnannas.org
They were taken into custody by police and released on the other side of the port without phones or money. Luckily, a supportive local resident hired them an Uber back to camp.
On Sunday, four Knitting Nannas in kayaks (including the author) paddled past the buoys into the Exclusion Zone. Three were arrested under the anti-protest provision of the Crimes Act, and the other with ‘Breach Marine Exclusion Zone,’ which attracts a maximum $5000 fine.
Another protester who was arrested is Hannah Thomas. She recently sustained a serious eye injury during a pro-Palestine protest, leading to a policeman being charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm. Thomas was arrested close to where MWM’s reporter was taken into custody.
Like fifty others, Thomas was charged under the Marine Safety Act. On the police launch that carried her across the harbour, there was a half-and-half split between those charged with the minor or the more serious charge.
Oldies Rising
On Sunday evening, Queenslander June Norman from the Oldies Rising group, who believes she has a
duty to protect the environment for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
told a packed marquee of hundreds of cheering supporters, “Last year, I went out six times, got forced back and dumped. I failed. So this year, I went in camouflage. I went on a boat with four others, all five over eighty.
“They [the police] didn’t want to arrest us, but our guardian couldn’t leave us, so they had to arrest us. He insisted we went with him and so they took an hour and a half taking us to the other side (Carrington) where they ‘unarrested us’.”
Protestors ‘arrestable’, Police affable
Art historian Ann Stephen and her partner artist Tim Bass attended Rising Tide for the first time. They resolved to be ‘arrestable’ and kayaked out with the rest of the flotilla. Stephen observed that others were being arrested and kept paddling inside the exclusion area.
“A police officer/security person on a Jetski comes close and again issues a warning for us to leave the channel, but states that, as he is maritime authority personnel, he does not have the power to arrest. He is accommodating rather than menacing and offers to tow us into shore. “Offer refused!” she wrote in an account of her experience.
Eventually, the port was closed, and no police were interested in arresting them, so along with quite a few others, they reluctantly returned to the beach. “We are greeted by the waving beach crowd, soaked and exhausted. We stopped the ships! Well, we seem to have intimidated them for today; next year we will be back to be arrested!” she wrote.
Later, MWM talked to a couple from Adelaide. One was arrested last year and is still waiting for her case to be heard. This year, it was her husband’s turn. He was disappointed not to be arrested, but like Stephen and Bass, they will be back to get arrested next year.
Calls for independent review
The people arrested included 18 minors. The Human Rights Law Centre is calling for an independent review of the policing. Senior lawyer David Mejia-Canales said, “We’re particularly concerned by reports that 18 young people – one as young as 15 – were arrested and processed under the Young Offenders Act. Children have the right to participate in public life and to speak out about decisions that will shape the world they inherit.
Arresting children for exercising their democratic right to protest in a democracy is a serious overreach by NSW Police.”
Those taking direct action were supported by an impressive level of cooperative organisation. Over four days, 1500 meals were provided twice a day, dishes washed and portaloos cleaned. Arrestees were processed by volunteers, and their statements were made to the new legal service Climate Defenders.
All of these people, from a wide range of occupations, genders and ages, are there because they support civil disobedience. Each person arrested was celebrated by a cheering crowd on their return to camp.
While justifying tough protest laws, Premier Chris Minns likes to talk about keeping the public safe. No member of the public was put in any danger by the kayak flotilla, the swim team or the lock-ons. There was no coal ship in sight when the Rising Tide flotilla was launched.
MWM’s reporter can say from experience that it is more nerve-wracking to kayak on a busy Sydney Harbour than at Rising Tide in Newcastle.
Thinking about real dangers – the Federal government’s First National Climate Risk Assessment warned that heatwave deaths in Sydney could skyrocket by more than 400 per cent.
Heatwaves already cause more deaths in Australia than all other extreme events combined.
At the time when kayakers were entering the Marine exclusion zone, more than a thousand human beings were being swept away by climate-fuelled floods in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Thousands more have lost their homes and livelihoods. With each small increase in global warming, more human beings will die.
Climate scientists have now established that each new fossil fuel project will contribute to increasing climate change. Australia has 94 projects in the pipeline.
Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who was the Professor of Journalism at UTS. She worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has published in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. She has a long history in promoting independent and alternative journalism.
She is a long-term supporter of a peaceful BDS and the Greens.