Police poised to pounce as more disruptive climate protests expected

Police say they are poised to pounce on climate protesters planning to conduct further unauthorised protests this week after members of the Blockade Australia group caused major disruptions across Sydney’s CBD on Monday, leading to 10 arrests with more expected in coming days.

Most of the group – numbering about 60 – converged on Hyde Park about 8am before dispersing across the streets, deliberately getting in the way of traffic and making use of objects in their path – chairs, sandwich boards, traffic barricades – to maximise their impact.

A protester used a bike lock to attach herself to a car blocking the entrance to the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.Credit: Blockade Australia

At the same time, a young woman parked her car across the southbound entrance to the Harbour Tunnel, and placed a bike lock around her neck and the steering wheel.

The woman, identified by Blockade Australia as “Mali”, a 22-year-old Lismore resident, live-streamed her protest – and the irate reaction of at least one driver who approached her car numerous times to shout expletives as she waited for police to arrive.

Back in the CBD, video shot from above the fray captured what appeared to be another angry driver ramming several people with their vehicle.

“To those people who are really angry right now, I understand,” Mali said in her livestream. “It’s not a good thing to be experiencing. You know what? Climate change isn’t a good thing to be experiencing.

“I’ve watched much devastation with two one-in-100-year floods. This is climate change. I cannot stay silent any more. I cannot be complacent any more.”

Officers eventually cut her from the vehicle and placed her under arrest before reopening the tunnel to traffic shortly after 9am.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul Dunstan told reporters the woman “put herself at risk, placed members of the public at risk and her rescuers at risk”.

Dunstan is the commander of Strike Force Guard, which was established in March to investigate and disrupt unauthorised protests across the state.

Protesters use items found on the side of the road to block traffic as they move through the CBD. The Herald does not suggest that any of the people photographed were among those arrested, or that they have broken the law or engaged in wrongdoing.Credit: Brook Mitchell

He said police had a “very strong deployment on the footprint of the CBD” on Monday but struggled to contain the protesters. Despite being a relatively small group, they were “highly unorganised and erratic, and they were moving throughout the CBD in an unstructured format, and it was difficult to get ahead of them”, he said.

Dunstan said police would review CCTV and other video footage and warned protesters to “expect a knock on your door”.

Ten people, aged between 21 and 49, were charged under tough new anti-protest laws aimed at deterring protests that disrupt roads, ports and other infrastructure with penalties of up to $22,000 or two years’ jail.

The majority of those charged were from Victoria, one person was from Queensland and four came from NSW. Seven of them were refused bail.

The laws have attracted criticism from activists and human rights groups as “draconian” and “incompatible with the democratic right to protest”.

But Dunstan said on Monday the behaviour of the group, which professes to be non-violent, was “nothing short of criminal” and that throwing items was “certainly of a violent nature”.

“The throwing of bicycles, the throwing of garbage bins, the throwing of other items in the path of police, in the path of media, in the path of innocent members of the public just walking by will not be tolerated,” he said.

Dunstan said no injuries had been reported, and officers were investigating the incident in which a car hit a number of protesters, along with the rest of the protest activity.

Police were “unaware” of what Blockade Australia has planned for Tuesday, he said.

But as the group has flagged the entire week for protest action, police would be “out in force in all locations”.

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