Blockade Australia protester causes Sydney traffic chaos at Port Botany
Police are searching for up to 20 people after a protest in Sydney’s south which saw traffic grind to a halt. What penalty should be handed down to protesters? Vote in our poll.
NSW
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Police are searching for up to 20 people involved in a climate protest which saw traffic ground to a halt outside a major Sydney port this morning- as the Deputy Premier called on magistrates to come down harder on climate pests.
A 23 year-old Victorian man was arrested on Tuesday after Blockade Australia activists erected a nine-metre pole and suspended him on it on Bumborah Point Rd near Friendship Rd about 6:20am, blocking traffic at Port Botany in all directions.
Kilometres of traffic including freight trucks was forced to a standstill, with queues reaching back to General Holmes Dr and the M1 as Police Rescue and Fire & Rescue crews worked to try and pull the man down.
The protester was eventually dragged down by police on a ladder platform about 8am before being taken to Maroubra Police Station.
A second protester was also seen blocking the road in a separate structure made of bamboo and rope but is not thought to be in police custody.
Eastern Beaches Area Commander Superintendent Tim Beattie said investigators were exploring “a whole range” of options to charge the Victorian after a ”challenging” operation to bring him back to earth.
“We‘re investigating the circumstances of what has occurred today with the view of putting those before the court … police won’t tolerate that sort of behaviour, we’ll take swift and appropriate action as we have today,” Supt Beattie said.
“Certainly the challenge for us was to bring him down safely and make sure everyone involved was not injured … we‘re currently gathering all the evidence and will put the most appropriate charges before the court.”
Supt Beattie said investigators were probing reports a group of up to 20 people were involved, and said police believed the group could have been involved in an altercation but left before emergency services arrived.
“I‘m aware that there were a number of other people involved, and we have investigators looking at all the evidence and gathering relevant facts to determine what action they played in this part,” he said.
“There’s police reports of up to 20 people … we do understand and believe there were others involved that may have been a distraction, but certainly this man was the main focus for us when we got there.”
Supt Beattie said while police had “really good” CCTV and witness statements but called on anyone with further information to come forward.
He said police were keen to put a stop to Blockade Australia‘s protests because of the “unfair” impact on local residents and commuters.
“Ultimately we need to hold everyone accountable for what occurred today,” Supt Beattie said.
“We are well aware of this group involved, their objective is to cause disruption and indeed they did … it‘s unfair for the community, it’s unfair for business holders and certainly unfair for the heavy vehicles that need to go about their business.”
It comes as Deputy Premier Paul Toole told 2GB this morning he wanted NSW magistrates to take a tougher stance on climate protesters following repeated disruptions to traffic.
Mr Toole claimed while tougher penalties needed to be created, it was “frustrating” when magistrates freed serial activists.
“I think there‘s nothing more frustrating when we actually see police putting forward orders to have longer sentences and (protesters) get let off by magistrates,” Mr Toole said.
“We need tougher magistrates to make these decisions … but if that‘s not going to happen we need to have a look at the law to make sure it’s enforced even stronger.”
Just before 9am, Blockade Australia revealed why Port Botany had been chosen for the protest.
“In 1770 Australia began a 250 year campaign of genocide against the First Nations people on this continent. Botany Bay was where this campaign started. Today Blockade Australia is taking action on Port Botany and shutting it down,” the post read.
“Australia’s system of exploitation and extraction is driving climate collapse. Blockade Australia is taking action at the Port of Botany and shutting it down because of its importance to this destructive system … targeted disruption against bottlenecks in the Australian system is the kind of resistance that is needed to salvage a liveable future.”
The protest caused heavy delays for motorists, with LiveTraffic revealing kilometres of standstill traffic on nearby Foreshore Rd and Botany Rd all the way back to General Holmes Dr. Traffic was also heavy on the nearby M1 and on Southern Cross Dr.
In a live video streamed to Facebook, a member of the Blockade Australia, identified as ‘Tom’, 23, gloated that backed up trucks at the key south Sydney port “go as far as I can see”.
He claimed to have been there for four hours by 7.30am, suspended from a nine-metre high monopole.
The live video showed a backlog of trucks as well as police and volunteer rescue association members milling around before he signed off before 8am.
“I’m really tired and hungry,” he said.
“Botany was the first point of contact and the starting point of the invasion.”
NSW Transport Minister David Elliott lashed the protest, saying the incident was “nothing short of economic vandalism”.
“Not only does this inconvenience a workforce which doesn’t deserve it, but it inhibits economic recovery as we come out of the pandemic and floods,” Mr Elliott said.
“I can’t imagine a fellow Australian being so selfish, self centred and arrogant, to think this protest will get any empathy from the people of this city for their cause.”
It comes less than a week after three people were charged over a protest on the Spit Bridge at Mosman which disrupted the Monday morning peak hour.
This incident was orchestrated by a separate protest group – Fireproof Australia – who have blocked Sydney traffic on four occasions in total.
At the time, Liberal MP Jason Falinski said blocking traffic was not an act of “free speech” and lashed the protesters for disrupting the commutes of busy Sydneysiders.
Tuesday’s action is the latest economically destructive action taken by Blockade Australia, after the group took part in a rolling series of blockades on Hunter railway lines late last year resulting in delays to millions of dollars worth of freight.
In November last year, Eric Serge Herbert, 22, was given a non-parole period of six months after pleading guilty to obstructing a train and attempting to hinder mining equipment by climbing on top of a coal train, causing it to stop for five hours.
The sisters, who live and work in Los Angeles but are originally from Caloundra in Queensland, wrote they were “f … ing mad” at officials for jailing him, with Elisha calling her brother one of the “most innocent, precious people just trying to do good for the planet”.
“My triplet brother just got sentenced to a year in prison for stopping a coal train and fighting against climate change on behalf of all of us,” she wrote on Instagram.
Herbert was one of at least 29 people who have so been arrested in relation to protests by the anti-coal group.
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