Extinction Rebellion members avoid convictions for interrupting Tom Koutsantonis during speech

Four “esteemed members of the community” have avoided criminal convictions after interrupting a minister’s speech and demanding more action on climate change.

Extinction Rebellion activists avoided jail after interrupting an oil and gas meeting. Picture: Facebook

Four “esteemed members of the community” have been spared criminal convictions after they interrupted a minister’s speech during an oil and gas meeting and demanded more action on climate change.

On Monday, Dr Ea Mulligan, John Wishart, Leena Sudano and Dr Mary Heath faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to charges of interfering with public meeting proceedings.

The four, who are members of climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion, were arrested in October 2022 after they chained and glued themselves to the National Wine Centre while Energy and Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis was addressing a round table conference.

Two protesters chained themselves to doors at the conference in October, 2022. Picture: Facebook

During sentencing, Magistrate John Wells said the four members were esteemed members of the community.

“Ms Sudano, you have a background in nursing and midwifery at a high level. Dr Mulligan, you are a retired medical practitioner. Dr Heath, you are a now retired Flinders law professor, and Mr Wishart, you have worked in the labour movement for much of your life but have now retired,” Mr Wells said.

“On October 20, 2022, the Department for Energy and Mining held an oil and gas round table conference. The four of you bought tickets and attended legally and appropriately.

“There was then a protest inside the building, which involved some people blowing whistles and interrupting the minister’s speech. Two of you chained yourselves to the door, and the other two glued yourselves to glass panels. The general manager then called the police.”

The court heard all four members spent a “limited” amount of time in custody, stretching from 27 minutes to just under an hour.

Extinction Rebellion activists have avoided jail after interrupting an oil and gas meeting.

“Protesting is an important part of the democratic process,” Mr Wells said.

“Significant political change can come from agitation and protest.

“I accept you all genuinely believed your conduct was appropriate, but you were all well aware that your conduct is also illegal. In my view, you were aware of that illegality and you made conscious decisions to break the law.”

Mr Wells said their offending was “not the worst” type, and they had not intended to cause any damage.

“You were there to protest rather than cause damage to the wine centre. This was more of a nuisance and irritation,” he said.

The four were sentenced to serve 30 hours of community service, reduced to 21 hours due to their early guilty plea.

Mr Wells did not record a conviction for any of them.

Outside court, Dr Mulligan told The Advertiser she felt a need to inform decision makers about risks to the public.

“As a trained research scientist and a specialist medical practitioner, I feel I have ethical responsibilities to raise dangers to the public with the relevant authorities, and that is exactly what I was doing. So I feel good about it,” she said.

“I won’t be bothering to provide expert advice to the minister again.”

Mr Wishart said the protest was a “completely peaceful” attempt to “get a message across to decision makers.”

“We need to end all new fossil fuel projects for us to survive. As a father and a grandfather, I’m worried about whether my kids and their kids will have a liveable future,” Mr Wishart said.

“I’m certainly not going to step back from being an environmental activist and doing what I can to prevent climate change, but I hope that people in power in the government start to do something meaningful.”

Mr Koutsantonis declined to comment on the outcome.