[ad_1]
South Australia has passed laws to ramp up fines for disruptive protests after a lengthy upper house debate.
The new measures were rushed through the state’s lower house last week with both the Labor government and the Liberal opposition supporting the changes.
After a more than 14-hour debate, the upper house passed the laws, with proposed Greens amendments failing – including a reasonableness test and an expiry date.
An SA Best amendment did pass, removing a “reckless intention” clause.
The changes increase maximum fines from $750 to $50,000 along with potential jail time.
They were prompted by three days of action by members of Extinction Rebellion earlier this month outside the annual Appea oil and gas conference in Adelaide.
During the conference, the South Australian energy and mining minister, Tom Koutsantonis, told representatives of the Australian oil and gas industry that the state government was “at your disposal” in an extended welcome for the opening of its annual conference.
The protests outside the venue included a woman who abseiled over a city bridge, forcing a main road to be closed for about 90 minutes.
South Australian police commissioner said at the time he had been frustrated by the protesters.
“The ropes are fully extended across the street. So we can’t, as much as we might like to, cut the rope and let them drop,” Grant Stevens said.
South Australia rushed through the anti-protest laws less than a day later.
The crackdown has been condemned by environmental campaigners and civil liberties groups.
Nikita White, the Amnesty International Australia campaign manager, said: “This crackdown on the right to protest means all our ability to fight for human rights and combat the climate crisis are under threat. People shouldn’t face huge fines, and even prison sentences, just for standing up for what’s right.”
Bill Browne, director of democracy and accountability at the Australia Institute, said the harsh new penalties for peaceful protests represented an alarming threat to civil liberties and a healthy democracy in South Australia.
“Australia has a proud tradition of peaceful protest, including the campaign to save the Franklin River from being dammed, boycotts against all-white sports teams from apartheid South Africa and union action to stop exploitative ‘ships of shame’. Protests may be inconvenient, but an Australia without protests would be a democratic disaster.
“Particularly worrying is that the legislation was rammed through just days after the oil and gas industry was told that the SA government is ‘at your disposal’. This rings alarm bells about the outsized influence big polluters have over our democratic processes and the public square.”
David Mejia-Canales, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, said the “knee-jerk reaction by the South Australian government will undermine the ability of everyone in SA to exercise their right to peacefully protest”.
“Australia’s democracy is stronger when people protest on issues they care about. But the SA government’s knee-jerk action in response to peaceful climate protestors at an annual fossil fuels conference, is yet another attack on people’s right to protest.”
[ad_2]
