2024-05-02
The Climate Crisis Working Group has devised an Open Letter on our Right to Protest as a response to increasing authoritarianism of the WA Government towards climate protesters
By Mark Brogan, Member, Climate Crisis Working Group, Greens (WA)
Beginning in 2023, the WA Government has sought to curtail citizen protest actions against WA’s biggest gas polluters through tactics of harassment and intimidation directed at protesters committing minor misdemeanours. The extent of this intimidation undermines something you may have taken for granted ‒ your right to protest actions of government that adversely affect your wellbeing and that of the planet that gives us life.
The Climate Crisis Working Group (CCWG) of the Greens (WA) has devised an Open Letter on our Right to Protest that it hopes will provide an opportunity to Greens and anyone concerned about the increasing authoritarianism of the WA Government to voice their concern. You can become a signatory to the letter via the Greens ‘Our Right to Protest’ campaign page.
Greens MLC, Dr Brad Pettitt will table the letter and the names of signatories when he speaks on the issue of the right to protest in a forthcoming session of the Legislative Council of the WA Parliament.
The Open Letter was developed as a politically non-aligned initiative giving voice to the concerns of thinking people, appalled at the increasingly authoritarian character of WA politics. The intent of the Open Letter is to call upon the WA Government to refrain from the draconian application of the criminal code to minor misdemeanours by protesters involved in non-violent protest actions against new gas projects. These projects include the Burrup Hub and Scarborough projects, both of which will significantly contribute to global warming and ecosystem collapse. Inclusive of Scope 1 and 3 emissions, the Burrup Hub is expected to produce over six (6) Gigatons of carbon dioxide pollution (6GtCO2) over its fifty (50) year projected life. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that the remaining global carbon budget from the beginning of 2020 for a 50% likelihood of limiting global warming to 1.5oC is only 500GtCO2. Clearly, Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGe) from this one project are highly significant and damaging in global terms for efforts to stay within 1.5oC of mean temperature increase.
The objective of threatening people with fourteen to twenty years in gaol, seizing their computers, phones and harassing them in their homes, is to discourage protest and, by so doing, to create the impression of a community warrant for carbon polluting projects that are profoundly destructive of the climate and planetary ecosystems. If we do not push back against authoritarian actions by government aimed at diminishing our right to protest, then authoritarianism will ratchet up over time, effectively silencing community opposition to ecocide.
More information on how Australian Governments are moving to restrict the right to protest the actions of gas companies, can be found in the following sources:
Noakes, J. (2023). The cost of the protest crackdown. The Saturday Paper. April 29-May 5, 2023 (https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/environment/2023/04/29/the-cos…)
Marlborough, P. (2023). FIFO cops: WA police are steamrolling climate activists. Crikey. August 7, 2023. (https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/08/07/western-australia-police-steamroll…)
Bacon, W. (2023). Draconian: South Australia just topped NSW, Tas, Victoria, Queensland with new laws penalising peaceful protesters. MichaelWest Media Independent Journalists. June 3, 2023. (https://michaelwest.com.au/draconian-south-australia-just-topped-nsw-ta…)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation. (2023). Four Corners: Escalation. [Climate, protest and the fight for the future.] (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-09/escalation:-climate,-protest-and-the-fight-for-the/102953710?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web)
McDonald Smith, A. (2024). Santos pursues environmentalists that bankrolled Barossa gas protest. Australian Financial Review April 5, 2024. (https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/santos-pursues-environmentalists-b…)
The content of the open letter is as follows:
OPEN LETTER TO THE WA GOVERNMENT ON THE RIGHT TO PROTEST IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Over the past year, predominantly peaceful protest actions undertaken by protesters against the expansion of WA’s gas industry have led to charges against protesters under the Criminal Code (s444, s338c) involving disproportionate and unreasonable penalties, including imprisonment to a maximum of 14 years. Citizen protest against the expansion of the fossil fuel industry is both reasonable and necessary since expansion of this industry has endangered Australia and the world by increasing the likelihood of catastrophic and irreversible climate change. Risk connected with new or expanded greenhouse gas emissions has led the International Energy Agency (IEA), the United Nations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the global community of climate scientists to call for an end to new fossil fuel development as fossil fuels are the key driver of the Climate Crisis. Right minded citizens have an obligation to peacefully contest expansion of the fossil fuel industry in WA in the absence of Government policy that recognizes that expansion of the gas industry as ecocide.
The signatories to this letter express their concern that:
- The use of criminal laws involving unreasonable and disproportionate penalties against peaceful protesters undermines the principle in a liberal democracy that citizens have an exercisable right to non-violent protest.
- The real motivation in wrongly applying criminal law in this way is to stifle civil dissent over the actions of the fossil fuel industry in growing the climate crisis.
- Use of the criminal code against peaceful protesters is authoritarian and if it continues will undermine the democratic character and legitimacy of the WA Government over time.
The signatories to this letter also call upon the WA Government to respect the right of citizens to protest in a democracy and urge it to refrain from:
- The criminalisation of the democratic right to protest.
- The charging of protestors with offences that are disproportionate in terms of penalties to the severity and disruption of actions taken by offenders.
- The harassment of protesters with disproportionate unreasonable force and intrusion into their homes.
- The seizure of computers, equipment and other private property and other acts of intimidation.
- The misrepresentation of peaceful protest as criminal activity.
If the WA Government is to responsibly acknowledge and address the Climate Crisis it needs to listen to the community, afford reasonable democratic rights to those protesting the further expansion of greenhouse gas emissions, and not resort to authoritarian practices inconsistent with democratic government.
--ooOoo--
Header photo: A sit down at the Schools Strike for Climate (SS4C) which marched from St Georges to Elizabeth Quay on 20/9/19. Viv Glance
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]