Woodside boss pushes on in bid to restrain activists who targeted her home

Meg O’Neill has appeared in court to seek a finalisation of a violence restraining order application against the climate activists who targeted her home.

Woodside Energy CEO Meg O’Neill arrives at The Magistrates Court via a side door. Picture: Colin Murty

One of Australia’s highest-profile chief executives, Woodside Energy boss Meg O’Neill, appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court on Friday as part of her ongoing efforts to restrain the climate activists who targeted her home.

Ms O’Neill was one of more than a dozen people scheduled to appear in the humble Courtroom 51 on Friday to seek a finalisation of a violence restraining order application.

Ms O’Neil applied for an interim VRO against several Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners earlier this year after the group - whose protest actions have included letting off stink bombs inside Woodside’ Perth headquarters and spray-painting the Woodside logo on colonial masterpiece Down on His Luck - tried to stage a protest at her City Beach home. The activists were accompanied by a film crew from the ABC’s Four Corners program, sparking widespread criticism of the national broadcaster.

Ms O’Neill’s hopes of having the matter finalised on Friday were dashed, however, with Magistrate Richard Huston lamenting the long line of violence restraining orders waiting to be finalised by the court.

Woodside Energy CEO Meg O’Neill was one of more than a dozen people scheduled to appear in the humble Courtroom 51 on Friday to seek a finalisation of an VRO application. Picture: Colin Murty

“The court is so busy with hearings, and hearings in relation to restraining orders in particular… Each of the other applications listed today, each of the other hearings have been waiting for their final order hearings for longer than this one,” he said.

He noted there would not be an opportunity for a hearing to allocate a date for the expected two-day trial until late January.

“It would be ideal if hearings were much sooner than that. It may well be the parliament, when it made the laws, may have expected hearings to be more prompt but it’s just a reflection of how busy the courts are,” he said.

The interim VRO currently in place for four of the Disrupt Burrup Hub activists was watered down slightly, with a gag order over the quartet being tweaked.

The original order stated that the four could not “harass or make any reference to” Ms O’Neill and her family, but that has now been amended to restraining them only from engaging in harassment.

Ms O’Neill was not required to speak and left the courtroom through a side door. She also avoided the court’s main entrance.

Separately, the activists also applied to be released from bail conditions that prohibit them from communicating with each other.

Prosecutors sought more time to consider materials filed by the activists.

Their barrister Anthony Elliott told the court the restrictions were having an impact on the activists’ mental health.

“They haven’t destroyed anything, haven’t done anything that in and of itself has been a danger to the community,” he said.

“The police have imposed very onerous conditions on these six people, who are all engaged in protests in relation to climate change. The terms of bail imposed were substantially more onerous than the state requires and the state should have been ready to deal with this today.”

That matter was adjourned until early December.

Speaking outside the court, Disrupt Burrup Hub activist Matilda Lane-Rose said the fires that destroyed at least ten homes in Perth’s north this week were a reminder of the need for climate action.

“What about the ‘threat, intimidation and distress’ felt by young people alive today due to the climate catastrophe fuelled by Woodside’s Burrup Hub,” she said.

“20 million people are set to lose their homes in the next year due to climate change - why is the Woodside CEO’s home so sacrosanct but theirs are not?”

Friday’s events followed the arrest earlier this week of more Disrupt Burrup Hub protesters in relation to the attempted protest at Ms O’Neill’s home.

The activists said they had been told the latest arrests were the result of the tens of hours of unbroadcast Four Corners footage handed over to WA police.