Fifty residents from central Victoria travelled to NSW last week to take part in a protest and blockade at a shipping port exporting coal.
Thousands of people from across the country attended the annual event hosted by the climate action group, Rising Tide. Protestors paddled in kayaks and other watercraft around Newcastle Harbour, the largest port exporting coal worldwide, and cancelled the arrival of two cargo ships.
A temporary marine-exclusion zone was put in place, and anyone who entered it was subject to arrest. NSW Police said it adopted a “zero-tolerance approach to actions which threaten public safety and the safe passage of vessels”. They arrested 141 people over the course of the six-day event that ended on Dec. 2, including about six residents from central Victoria.
Castlemaine resident Malcolm Robins attended the Rising Tide protest last week for his second time. The 79-year-old was arrested at the event after he purposely travelled by boat into the marine exclusion zone.
“The reason I did it was to create an awareness in in the community. With the absence of tangible government action, the community has to take over and do the job instead. And I recognise, also, that I probably won’t see any results in my lifetime, but I’ve got grandchildren,” Mr Robins said.
“Being a baby boomer and participating in stealing of the future of younger generations, I feel a duty of care to actually do what I can.
“A group of us got together and called ourselves ‘The Oldies Rising’. We decided that five of us, plus the captain of the boat, would set out as a team of old people in support of the younger generations to to get ourselves noticed and arrested.
“When [the police] discovered that we were all sort of in the eighties-class group, they unarrested us and said, ‘we’re not going to prosecute you with your age’.
“I believe they didn’t arrest us because it’s bad public relations. And that, I regard, as a piece of gross ageism.”
The Human Rights Law Centre has called for an independent review into the event, and expressed concern for 18 minors who were arrested.
In a statement, the Centre said, “Arresting children for exercising their democratic right to protest in a democracy is a serious overreach by NSW Police”.
Newly-elected Greens candidate for West Bendigo, Liza Shaw, was also in attendance. She said the police appeared to conduct psychological warfare.
“I will also add that the police were doing what appeared to be a bit of kind of psychological warfare, like through the night, sort of ringing their sirens all the time, just to sort of keep us so under slept,” Ms Shaw said.
“It was interesting that the police were protecting the rights of the the coal industry rather than the rights of people that were there to make some noise about the fact that we are, you know, shipping tons and tons and tons of coal overseas, despite our climate emergency.”
Ms Shaw too kayaked in the water but stayed away from the exclusion zone.
She added, “there’s a whole lot of roles that people play in big blockade. I spent some time at the lemonade stand, and some time also at the inner community care role, which is a way of looking after all the people in the blockade community there. And all these roles are done voluntarily. People were cleaning the toilets and they weren’t even getting paid for it. It just really shows how dedicated people are to the cause and how generous people are with their time.”
Mount Alexander councillor Lucas Maddock also attended in a personal capacity. He spoke to the Express as a private resident, not on behalf of council.
“I joined the blockade because we need more action and we need it fast,” Mr Maddock said.
“I’m furious with our Labor government’s carelessness with our environment and future generations. Opening new coal and gas projects while our planet faces climate catastrophe is unconscionable.”
