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Serial climate protesters jailed for blocking West Gate Bridge
By Lachlan Abbott and Alex Crowe
Two serial climate protesters who blocked traffic on the West Gate Bridge during Melbourne’s morning peak have been jailed for three weeks each.
Extinction Rebellion activists Deanna “Violet” Maree Coco, 33, and Bradley Homewood, 51, represented themselves and pleaded guilty to public nuisance and obstructing police at the Melbourne Magistrates Court late on Tuesday night.
In separate hearings, police prosecutor Geoff Adams told the court the pair – alongside a third protester, Joseph Zammit – caused “massive” delays for thousands of commuters when they parked a rental truck across three lanes of the West Gate Freeway about 7.50am.
The trio then climbed onto the truck’s roof to unfurl banners that said, “climate breakdown has begun” and “declare a climate emergency” and let off smoke flares.
Police used a cherry picker to bring the trio down from the truck roof and arrested them about 9.45am.
Homewood, a Williamstown man who has previously been arrested when protesting, told the court: “I understand that [this] disruption is very divisive, but I felt like I’m in a state of climate anxiety and despair.”
Extinction Rebellion protesters have caused traffic chaos on the West Gate Bridge.
Coco, the first person jailed in 2022 under NSW’s now invalid anti-protest laws for a Sydney Harbour Bridge demonstration, later said: “I’m really sorry to have caused the inconvenience, but I believe a vital part of democracy is civil resistance.”
Magistrate Andrew McKenna, however, didn’t accept that either showed any “real remorse” for the disruption he said could have caused delays for emergency services responding to urgent incidents or force people to be late for, or miss, kindergarten, school, medical appointments, business meetings and court appearances.
“It just seems to be a blind pursuit of a cause irrespective of the consequences for others,” McKenna said when sentencing Coco to 21 days in prison. Earlier, he issued the same sentence to Homewood.
“On the one hand he says he was sorry, on the other hand, he said it was justified,” the magistrate said. “It was quite unacceptable in every sense.”
Extinction Rebellion protester Joseph Zammit was bailed on Tuesday.Credit: Nine News
Zammit, a 68-year-old from Burnside Heights, also represented himself, but disputed whether there were clear cases of emergency responses being delayed and said the protesters’ truck blocked only three lanes while police closed the other two.
“Therefore, yes, the West Gate bridge came to a standstill, but I dare say, only after police arrived,” Zammit said.
The police prosecutor said the lane had to be closed for safety and specific example of emergency service delays could be found.
Zammit was bailed to reappear in court on April 16.
Extinction Rebellion is set to stage more disruptions next week.
A group spokeswoman said activists plan to hold Rebel for Life demonstrations over three days beginning on March 13, calling on the government to declare a climate emergency.
Those demonstrations will mimic protests the group organised in December, which included a slow march that stopped traffic in the CBD and led to the arrest of multiple protesters.
Coco was sentenced to 15 months’ jail in 2022 for her role in a Sydney Harbour Bridge protest and banned from going within one kilometre of the landmark.
Serial protester Deanna “Violet” Maree CoCo.Credit: James Brickwood
She was the first person to be charged under anti-protest laws the NSW government passed in April 2022, which introduced fines of up to $22,000 and up to two years in jail for anyone found to have blocked major infrastructure.
Coco’s arrest drew condemnation from human rights groups and opponents of tough protest laws at the time. She was released after a court heard she was initially imprisoned on false information provided by the NSW police.
The NSW Supreme Court struck down part of the anti-protest laws in December 2023, ruling that criminalising activities that cause partial closures or redirections around ports and train stations was constitutionally invalid.
In Melbourne, Tuesday’s protest created delays for city-bound commuters that continued throughout the morning. Traffic slowed down on a stretch of the Princes Freeway between the bridge to Point Cook Road, and along the Western Freeway on the M80 Ring Road.
The activists used a truck to block lanes of traffic.Credit: Nine News
One driver reported taking two hours to travel just 13 kilometres. Another woman told the ABC her granddaughter would miss a hospital appointment for an electroencephalogram as a result of the protests.
Police Minister Anthony Carbines said the behaviour from “a small number of idiots was completely unacceptable”.
“It is clear that these individuals would like to cause mass disruptions which can put the safety of both themselves and others in the community at risk.”
He added Victoria’s anti-protest laws “strike the right balance between ensuring police have the tools they need to maintain public order while protecting the rights of citizens to peacefully protest”.
The demonstration comes as political leaders from across Asia converge on Melbourne for the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, which began this week. The summit includes a Climate and Clean Energy Transition Forum, where delegates will focus on an accelerated clean energy transition.
Climate protesters on the roof of the truck.Credit: Nine News
An Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman said the timeline and scale of proposed measures did not come close to the speed and level required.
She added that Australia must show leadership at the ASEAN summit by declaring a climate and ecological emergency and calling on other ASEAN leaders to do the same.
Opposition senator Simon Birmingham called the protests “pointless” and “bordering on counterproductive”.
Birmingham said he had previously acknowledged the Coalition “had problems” regarding climate policy during its time in power, but Australia’s emissions still trended down during that period.
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