Defiant climate activists snub police plea over resourcing fears on peak fire day
Climate activists say police fears that a protest will drain vital emergency resources on a fire danger day are “a storm in a tea cup”. Police had urged the protesters to think of fire-ravaged areas and postpone Friday’s event.
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Defiant climate protesters say they will go ahead with plans to shut Melbourne CBD down on Friday, despite being urged to rethink the plan.
Police say it could drain vital resources from bushfire-affected communities as more than 5000 activists gather at the State Library from 6pm and march through the city, causing peak-hour chaos.
Uni Students For Climate Justice representative Anneke Demanuele told the Herald Sun they “will be going ahead” with Friday’s protest despite police asking them to reschedule.
“This is a storm in a teacup that has been created by the police and the media,” she said.
“This isn’t about resources, this is about trying to stop people from talking about climate change.”
She said police calling her group “naive” was “just ridiculous.”
“It is just ridiculous, we are people who want to see action around the climate,” she said.
“There is palpable fury directed to Scott Morrison.
“I had one conversation with one police person, asking me if they would reconsider”
“I’m sick of talking about the police.”
It comes after North West Metro Region acting assistant commissioner Tim Hansen said the protest would cause “significant disruption” and require hundreds of police on the ground who could be better used in bushfire-ravaged communities.
“The timing of this protest probably could not be worse if we are serious about supporting the communities impacted by fire,” he said.
“To conduct an event which drains that number of police resources away from its number one priority, is really stretching us. It is not considerate.”
Police and Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said she was “stunned” by the “reckless and selfish thing people are doing”.
She said she did not want to see police pulled back from fire zones, where they are importantly keeping people safe.
“This is obviously an important issue and people have the right to protest,” she said.
“I am just stunned and I would ask them to reconsider.
“There is a time for protests, it is not this Friday.”
But Ms Demanuele said the protest was prompted by people were “outraged” by the current fires ravaging the state and NSW.
“We need demonstrations because these fires are happening,” she said.
“It’s putting forward an argument the government needs to be doing more.”
Ms Demanuele said people in rural areas need more funding than the $2 billion promised on Tuesday by the federal government.
“If you’re on the cashless welfare card in regional communities it’s going to be hard to get out,” she said.
“They can’t access ATMs … there’s no power. “$2 billion isn’t enough.
“These (regional) communities will need much more money to be rebuilt.”
Ms Demanuele also slammed the government and said it had not been proactive enough in its response to the bushfire crisis.
“The government were pretty late in their response (to Mallacoota),” she said. “There isn’t enough and there should be more.”
Yesterday, Ms Demanuele said the protest would be peaceful in nature. “We never asked the police to come to our demonstrations, we don’t actually need them,” she said.
“People are capable of marching through the city without the police, that is their choice I guess.”
Mr Hansen said police “don’t hold the luxury of not attending” and the force had a “sworn duty” to attend.
“There will be significant disruption, there is the potential for people to get frustrated and for violence to escalate,” he said.
“It is a bit naive to think: ‘We haven’t asked the police to attend, therefore the police don’t need to attend.’
“Our concern is around the timing of the protest. I think climate change and policy is a great discussion to have. What we are saying is now is not the time.”
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He said the group was “well known” to police and there was a strong risk “different factions” might attend the protest.
“Sometimes we have to intervene and de-escalate and that potentially may turn violent. We have asked them seriously to go away and think about the timing.”
The group said they had been looking at Australia’s bushfires with “absolute horror” and they wanted Prime Minister Scott Morrison “to be sacked” from government.
“This is not some ordinary natural disaster, this is a crisis that has been caused by climate change,” Ms Demanuele said. “We need to get all of these bastards out.”