Tensions ran high outside Boorloo District Court on May 30, where three Disrupt Burrup Hub (DBH) campaigners were to be sentenced for attempting to disrupt a Woodside annual general meeting on May 8 with a stink bomb.
A small, but loud, group of DBH supporters and climate activists gathered in front of the court with drums and placards to support the activists and protest federal Labor’s decision to approve Woodside’s North West Shelf (NWS) extension for 50 years.
Petrina Harley, DBH activist and a member of Socialist Alliance, told the protest: “We’re angry at the NWS decision, but not really surprised. The last two WA Labor premiers approved this monstrous gas expansion, despite knowing the science and hearing the pleas from First Nations’ Custodians to save the ancient rock art.
“They just don’t care. Western Australia is completely captured by the fossil fuel industry; their voice is the only one the government listens to. It just confirms our reasoning that mass grassroots protest and nonviolent direct action are the only means we have to try and stop Woodside’s toxic emissions.”
Some activists went inside the court, where police and lawyers argued about whether the three activists were dangerous criminals, intent on harming people with a stink bomb, or whether they were altruistic people concerned with Woodside’s carbon bomb.
The prosecutor wanted jail time, but the magistrate said the crime did not warrant it. The sentencing was adjourned.
After 15 people, led by the DBH defendants, left the court and started to march to the Commonwealth building to make their views on the NWS decision known, police stepped in to detain Harley for crossing the road. They issued her with a “move on” notice.
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Harley told Green Left she was “grabbed, handcuffed and dragged to police wagon. I had my legs kicked out from under me as a sergeant issued the notice. Meanwhile, about four cop vans and 20 more police showed up to stand around and tell people not to block the footpath!
“My ‘crime’ was not to stop on a red pedestrian signal.”
Harley said the policing excess was further proof of the enormous influence of the fossil fuel industry on government.
“Labor may believe that they can just continue on as business as usual. But for us, the election changed nothing. The same struggle to save our planet from catastrophic climate change remains,” Harley said.
Harley is facing trial this month for blockading the road into the Burrup Hub project last year.
[Join the struggle against Woodside or help with court costs and fines by clicking here.]