Activist faces jail threat

Sean Pickard, an Indigenous rights activist, has been threatened with jail for non-payment of fines imposed as a result of convictions on five counts of "failing to produce a ticket" on Melbourne's privatised public transport system.

During the trials that resulted in the fines, Pickard told the court that he rejects the Crown's jurisdiction over Australia.

Pickard argues that the "authorised officers" who check tickets on public transport have no valid authority because they are appointees of a government based on invasion of Australia by the British Crown, and because there has been no treaty with the Indigenous peoples. In court, Pickard explained that "the Crown established its rule over this land through extreme violence, terror and genocide, both cultural and physical, against the First Peoples".

On November 7, Pickard received letters giving him 28 days to pay the fines or face arrest. He told Green Left Weekly that he would not pay.

From GLW issue 775