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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

Up to 15 months in jail, with a minimum non-parole period of eight months—that’s the sentence that a climate protester was handed recently in NSW.

It’s a sentence that caused widespread alarm from human rights and civil liberties groups, and it heralds a new era in sentencing as anti-protest laws are passed around the country.

But will this sentence change the tactics of the climate action movement? Or will it open the door to re-examine these new protest laws?

Today, contributor to The Saturday Paper, Royce Kurmelovs, on the jailing of Deanna “Violet” Coco and how governments are trying to outlaw disruption.

It’s Monday, December 12.

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RUBY:

So, Royce, Deanna “Violet” Coco was arrested earlier this year on Sydney Harbour Bridge and her arrest was during this protest of a climate action that made national news. But do you mind taking me back to that day and telling me about what exactly it was that happened as she was arrested?

ROYCE:

Yeah, so on April 13, Coco stopped a light delivery truck on Sydney Harbour Bridge blocking a single lane of traffic.

Archival tape – Deanna “Violet” Coco:

“Hi, I’m Violet, I’m here as a supporter of Fireproof Australia.”

ROYCE:

She then climbed out and lit a flare before making a statement to camera.

Archival tape – Deanna “Violet” Coco:

“We’re here to protect Australia from the devastating bushfires, from the floods…”

ROYCE:

Others in the group that she was with glued themselves to the road.

Archival tape – Deanna “Violet” Coco:

“This is an emergency situation. We are in an emergency.”

ROYCE:

By making this protest on Harbour Bridge, Fireproof Australia were making a very symbolic action. It is the main thoroughfare between those moving from the Northern Beaches into the city for work and those going out. And so to block better mid-morning traffic as it was, both, you know, tactically significant but also symbolically powerful.

The whole protest lasted roughly 28 minutes and they were eventually arrested and the road cleared. Police then went and charged Coco with several offences. One of these was using a modified unauthorised explosive not as prescribed, which was how they described the flare she was using and she was also charged with resisting arrest.

RUBY:

And so before that particular day, before she was arrested, you'd actually spoken to Coco about her activism. So, what did she say to you about why she was taking this kind of action? And do you think that she was prepared for the kinds of consequences that she's now facing?

ROYCE:

Yes. I first spoke to Violet when I was doing a story on Fireproof Australia, and this was about a month before her arrest. My impression of her was that she was very intelligent, very smart, very capable, and also very committed to her cause. And what I learnt during that time was that she was also respected within the climate movement as someone who had made this cause her life.

And Coco is an interesting figure within the climate movement. You know, she kind of, in her own words, she came to this in 2018, which until then she was living a relatively quiet life. She studied management philosophy at uni, she ran a community theatre group and, you know, had her own business and was helping her sister raise her child. As she became more aware of the climate crisis and the science around climate change, she just felt compelled to act. She felt compelled to actually do something.

Initially, she kind of joined up with Extinction Rebellion when they were starting their initial protest actions. And I guess the moment where she came to public awareness was—she was one of eight Extinction Rebellion protesters who set fire to an empty pram outside Parliament House.

Archival tape – News Reporter:

“On the steps of Parliament a fiery protest on a burning issue…”

Archival tape – Deanna Violet Coco:

“Australia we have to act now!”

ROYCE:

The visual imagery that she created with that immediately meant that that protest went viral.

Archival tape – News Reporter:

“‘Bonfire of the inanity’ climate change protestors created a few emissions of their own yesterday when they set fire to a pram outside Parliament…”

ROYCE:

For that, she spent two weeks in jail but then, you know, six months after that protest, which took place in about August 2021, she started getting involved in this splinter group called Fireproof Australia. So, Fireproof Australia is a splinter group from Extinction Rebellion, where Extinction Rebellion have these kind of big, abstract goals and you know, their protests are more creative and performative, Fireproof Australia is more pragmatic, more simple and has clearer goals.

Then we move forward to kind of, through 2021 and 2022, and both they and other groups like Blockade Australia were running a series of protest actions where they would block roads, railways, other sorts of things at places like the Port of Newcastle or the Port of Botany and also, you know, across Sydney. And when we talk about some of these tactics, they're quite disruptive. You know, they target commerce, they slow the flow of traffic, they are aimed at stopping the export of coal, for instance, by interrupting, you know, export trains on train lines.

RUBY:

Yeah, these blockades, as you say, they were disruptive and there was backlash from the public, from the media and also from the government. As a result, these new protest laws have been put in place in New South Wales. So, can you tell me about that?

ROYCE:

Yeah, once these protests started, they really struck Sydney for the way that they were concentrated, they were consistent and there were multiple protests, disruptive protests, planned within one period.

And immediately you had a run of commentary in the media.

Archival tape – News Reporter:

“Well, good evening, climate activists have caused chaos across Sydney for a fourth straight day with increasingly dangerous stunts.”

Archival tape – News Reporter:

“Can I have your home address, so when I’m angry about something I’ll go and block your house and stop you walking out and disrupt your life?”

ROYCE:

There were people talking about, “Oh, this disruption, it's ruining traffic.”

Archival tape – News Reporter:

“They are just holding the state and the country to ransom for the sake of it? So, you know, that can’t happen.”

ROYCE:

You know, people can't get to work, things are shutting down. And then immediately, you know, the state's political leadership began to respond to this.

Archival tape -- Unkwnown Person:

“Well, today is an important day in NSW, today we have said enough is enough. We are sick of these selfish protesters holding our commuters to ransom.”

ROYCE:

One of the ways to do so was to move to pass laws that would essentially crack down on protest within the state. Attorney General Mark Speakman drew up these new laws and these were designed to specifically target protesters who stepped onto roads, moved in front of critical infrastructure like train lines or train stations, and hit them with heavy fines and potentially jail terms.

This legislation was then rushed through Parliament on the 1st of April 2022. It only spent two days in Parliament before it was voted on with bipartisan support. One of those ministers who voted for the bill, was actually Coco’s uncle, Alister Henskens, the Minister for Skills and Training and a factional ally of Premier Dominic Perrottet. Now, these laws punish anyone who blocks or disrupts a road, tunnel, bridge or other major facility without prior authorisation. And people can be hit with up to two years imprisonment or a fine of $22,000. And so it's at this point, in early April, that Coco was essentially on a collision course with these new laws as they were being passed.

RUBY:

Hm, okay. So, in the very same month that Coco is arrested on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, these new anti-protest laws go through the NSW Parliament. So, what does that mean for Coco?

ROYCE:

Well, it was clear from the very beginning that the NSW Government, in particular, was going to come down hard on climate protesters like Coco. Before facing court for the most recent protests, she was already hit with a raft of very strict bail conditions and was made to spend 21 days under house arrest, which is a pretty intense management arrangement for anyone who is involved with the criminal justice system. But when it came to actually hearing her sentence, Coco pled guilty to the offence, meaning that when it came time to hear the result, she went before Magistrate Alison Hawkins, who was a former legal aid lawyer who has something of a reputation for being a little unpredictable in court, and she was shown no leniency. When handing down the sentence, Coco was given a 15-month jail term and a two and a half thousand dollar fine.

But I think crucially, and the other thing that tends to get overlooked in this, is that Hawkins also denied Coco bail, which is a decision usually reserved for some of the most extreme, violent offenders. Magistrate Hawkins also described Coco as emotional and childish, saying her actions had let an entire city suffer. And she actually said to her: “You do damage to your cause when you do childish stunts like this. Why should they be disrupted by your selfish, emotional actions? You are not a political prisoner. You are a criminal.”

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Royce, it seems like Coco received a fairly extreme sentence—15 months jail with no bail being granted. Can we talk a bit about the political atmosphere that has surrounded that, surrounded this entire case, because on the one hand, there is all this shock and this outrage at the tactics that protesters used. And I think it's pretty clear that in certain parts of the community there was this desire to really make an example out of Coco and other protestors. But, on the other hand, this sentence has really shone a light on the new anti-protest laws, and the idea of hard jail time for protesters might be a bit of a surprise to some people.

ROYCE:

So in the media, at the time of these protests, there were a lot of calls for, you know, to throw the book at these protesters. Asking, why should people be late for work because of people carrying out protests around climate change? And you saw this come through when the sentence was handed down. Like, for instance, Sky News reported the story with the headline “Selfish Emotional Actions: Judge Lashes Climate Protester Before Thrown in Jail.” And it described Coco as a serial climate change protester who brought the city to a standstill. And you see this reflected also in the language and rhetoric of some of the political leadership of NSW.

Premier Dominic Perrottet has been calling for the book to be thrown at these protesters for some time. In many ways, he has echoed what Mark Speakman said earlier in the year about generally supporting people's right to protest.

Archival tape – Dominic Perrottet

“We want people to be able to protest but you should do it in a way that doesn’t inconvenience people right across New South Wales.”

ROYCE:

However, he's also said:

Archival tape – Dominic Perrottet

“It’s not excessive and if protesters want to put our way of life at risk they should have the book thrown at them and that’s pleasing to see.”

ROYCE:

His words have been matched by the Leader of the Opposition, Labor Leader Chris Minns, who said he had no regrets about supporting the harsh anti-protest laws.

Both Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns have highlighted Coco's past history as being arrested, as part of protest, as a justification for the sentence and for very harsh sentences being applied to people.

RUBY:

Yeah, I think it’s clear that both major parties have made the calculation that condemning these protesters will be a popular thing to do. But this kind of bipartisanship on cracking down is unusual, isn’t it Royce? Is there anything else that we can point to when we think about the politics behind this and the reasons that this particular legislation has managed to pass so quickly and so successfully through the NSW Parliament?

ROYCE:

There's a lot been going on behind the scenes with this legislation and how it breaks down is not quite clear. For instance, when this anti-protest law passed Parliament, it did so with the support of Labor.

However, others within NSW Labor have been quite alarmed by the sentence and the severity of it. That said, Labor negotiated a carve out to this legislation when it passed, which would effectively protect unions engaged in, you know, strikes and other sort of protests around industrial relations issues.

When it comes to kind of the Liberal/Coalition side, it's interesting because when I looked at the ministerial records, I found that Deputy Premier and Police Minister Paul Toole met with representatives from the NSW Minerals Council on 28th of March to discuss. Toole himself has been quite active on this issue, the bill was initially introduced back in March, only a week after he had been at multiple press conferences and on the same day promising harsher punishments for protesters. And I asked him what was discussed at that meeting, however, he would not say what they talked about. Instead, he told me that he attended a meeting with the NSW Minister Minerals Council in his capacity as Minister for Regional NSW with responsibility for resources, not in his capacity as Minister for Police. I also contacted NSW Minerals Council but did not hear back from them before publication.

RUBY:

I suppose just finally Royce if we come back to this sentence that Coco received for this protest action, what do you think that something like this means for the future of climate protests? Do you think that the threat of jail is going to cause protesters to pause?

ROYCE:

I think the consequences of this sentence are twofold and contradictory. Now, it remains to be seen, which comes through. On the one hand, it's chilling. It's a sentence that effectively tells people that if you care about climate, if you're concerned about this issue and if you're frustrated by the lack of action from political leaders across the country, the police will be used to suppress those protests, you will be fined severely, you will be thrown in jail. And there are enough people out there that may actually think twice about engaging in these protests, which is a democratic right.

On the other hand, it has also sparked a lot of opposition to these laws and a realisation that a key right essential for democratic society is also being placed under pressure. And it has made people more concerned about this than ever before, people who would not otherwise have paid attention to this issue.

Meanwhile, in amongst this, you also have the climate movement kind of mobilising in response.

Archival tape – Protests in support of Deanna Violet Coco:

“15 months for blocking roads, unjust laws have got to go!”

ROYCE:

Throughout the past week, there's been support rallies held in capital cities across the country in support of Coco.

So there's been a huge mobilisation of this and a huge realisation that, you know, you're turning this person into a significant figure within the movement.

I think the most interesting thing is the way Coco explained to me early on when I spoke to her back in March this year. She both diagnosed the problem and predicted what would happen to her when she said: “There is a lot of power in our system that is governed by capital and specifically in the fossil fuel industry. And that capital, you know, influences our politicians. I expect there is no possible way to win without that power trying to repress us. You know, I'm expecting that and I'm expecting it to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

RUBY:

Royce, thank you so much for your time.

ROYCE:

Thank you for having me.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

A Russian arms dealer was freed by the United States over the weekend, in exchange for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner.

Viktor Boot spent 14 years in U.S. prison for arms trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy.

Boot said at the prisoner exchange: “I wished her luck, she even sort of reached out her hand to me.”

And thousands of details of Telstra customers have been accidentally published publicly online.

The telecommunications company said 130,000 customers have been impacted, with some names, addresses and phone numbers published.

I’m Ruby Jones this is 7am, see you tomorrow.

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