‘I am not a menace to society’: First Tasmanian forest protester jailed in more than a decade

A Tasmanian forest protester has been sentenced to three months’ jail – the first time in a decade anyone in the state has served time for environmental activism.

Forest protester Colette Harmsen, before being sent to jail by the Hobart magistrates Court. Picture: Chris Kidd

A Tasmanian forest protester has been sentenced to three months’ jail – the first time in a decade anyone in the state has served time for environmental activism.

Colette Joan Harmsen, 47, raised her fist in defiance as she was led away by court security in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Friday.

“Doing it for the forests,” she proclaimed after her sentence was handed down by Magistrate Chris Webster.

Outside court, before her appearance, she made a passionate speech to a large group of forest and anti-mining protesters who turned up to support her.

“I am not a menace to society,” she said.

“Here I am, facing a jail term, while the real criminals are sitting in parliament, subsiding the destruction of our environment.

“I am a peaceful forest protester. The real criminals are the industries that cower behind laws that protect them from being held responsible for their environmentally-damaging practices.”

The Tinderbox resident pleaded guilty to four counts of trespass, two breaches of bail, failing to obey the direction of a police officer, and wilfully obstructing the use of a road.

But it was three counts of breaching a suspended sentence that ultimately landed her in jail, with Mr Webster saying he was not satisfied it would be unjust to activate the three month term.

Forest protester Colette Harmsen outside the Hobart Magistrates Court. Picture: Chris Kidd

Mr Webster said he would not take into account late submissions from prosecutors, who argued Ms Harmsen should be sentenced with 2022’s new anti-protest laws in mind.

Harmsen, who has appeared in court and pleaded guilty to trespass on nine separate occasions since 2010, had been handed a suspended sentence in November 2021 for trespass during a protest at the Wentworth Hills forest.

She then breached that suspended sentence by repeatedly locking herself on to an excavator at a Bob Brown Foundation protest at a Rosebery mine between 2021 and March this year, refusing to leave when directed to do so.

Mr Webster said the court had given Harmsen “every opportunity”.

But he said the present case was of “similar if not identical nature” to the original offending.

“The original penalty was intended to discourage the defendant from continuing her illegal protest activities,” Mr Webster said.

“It’s obvious the defendant intended to continue the course of conduct for which she is charged.

“Indeed she states to community corrections that she intends to continue on her activities in any event.”

For the matters other than the breached suspended sentence, Mr Webster convicted Harmsen and gave her a six-month suspended sentence.

After the hearing, Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager Jenny Weber said it was believed to be the first time ever a woman in Tasmania had been jailed over environmental protesting.

“As long as this planet heats from the global climate emergency, and we’re seeing the extinction of species, the race to extinction for swift parrots, Tasmanian devils – which are so dear to Colette -people will keep standing up and protesting,” she said.

“It’s in our blood that we will stand there in front of those bulldozers and protect those forests.”

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