Nearly 100 climate activists front Newcastle court over blockade

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Nearly 100 climate protesters are fronting a Newcastle court over a 30-hour blockade of the world's largest coal port, in November last year. Group 'rising tide' had organised the protest, which used kayaks and floats to obstruct the waterway. More than 100 people were arrested and charged.

Transcript

00:00 The first cohort of 99 protesters that took part in a blockade of the Port of Newcastle

00:07 in November last year have been dealt with in Newcastle local court this morning. They'd

00:12 all been charged with using a vessel to obstruct a waterway, but all of their matters this

00:17 morning had been dismissed. No convictions were recorded and there were no fines issued

00:22 either. The magistrate, Stephen Olishlager, noted that all of the matters this morning,

00:26 the people were all of good character and had done a lot of work volunteering in their

00:31 communities. He said that the protest action was not selfish and that they had acted out

00:38 of concern for climate change. There were students aged from 20 years old up to aged

00:43 pensioners aged in their 80s who fronted court this morning. We spoke to some of them outside

00:48 after the proceedings, including Bryce Ham, a 20-year-old local student. We've got the

00:54 best possible result which is a section 10, the case dismissed with no good behaviour

00:58 bond, which is a great sign that peaceful protest in Australia is still strongly respected

01:03 by the courts and is an excellent result today. It's been a long day in court getting through

01:07 99 matters to do with this blockade.

01:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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