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RUBY:

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

Last year, Deanna “Violet” CoCo was standing on top of a truck, on top of Sydney Harbour Bridge, with a flare in her hand.

She was prepared to be arrested; prepared to face harsh anti-protest laws – but she wasn’t prepared to be the target of national angst and passion about climate protest.

She was given a 15 month jail sentence for her actions — with the Magistrate calling her ‘childish' and ‘emotional’ during the sentencing.

Today, fresh from beating that prison sentence on appeal, Violet CoCo, on protest, justice, and the future of the climate movement.

It’s Wednesday March 22.

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RUBY:

Violet, in the last year or so, you’ve been arrested, you've been sentenced, you've spent 13 days in jail - and you've now had that sentence overturned, and this all as a result of your protest actions. So to begin with, how and when did you get involved in the climate protest movement?

VIOLET:

I was actually quite politically illiterate, say, five years ago. I had heard something about climate change. I didn't think that it was my responsibility. I didn't think that… I wasn't a politician and I wasn't a climate scientist. So I wasn't paying any attention to it, really. And then it became more into my attention through the Menindee Lakes, when all of those fish went upside down. And we've actually just had another massive killing of fish in Menindee Lakes recently. I heard more about the Adani mine, although at the time I thought it was the only mine in Australia. And then I went to this talk called “Heading for Extinction and What to Do About it” by Extinction Rebellion. You know at the end of this talk they say, “Oh, well, put your head up if you're willing to get arrested to save the planet." And I put my hand up and it's been a wild four years since then, because not only have I had to learn how to be a protester, but I've also had to learn about the climate science to be able to communicate it to people. And I've had to learn a lot about politics and the history of civil resistance around the world to be able to communicate that as well.

RUBY:

Let's talk about the day you were arrested - So April 13 last year. Can you take me back to that morning and tell me about what you and the people that you were with were planning on doing? And what you remember about the morning and how you felt about the day ahead?

VIOLET:

Well, Alan and I, we woke up that morning with our two friends, Jay and Karen, and we were all very nervous.

You know, it's a very scary thing to do to engage in protests and civil resistance in this way. And we're very lucky that we sort of have each other's backs and we support each other and we try and keep each other really calm.

I remember driving onto the Harbour Bridge and seeing that there were already police cars there, potentially waiting for us, so they sort of knew that maybe we would be there.

We parked and we climbed on top of the truck.

Archival tape – Protestor:

“Well this is as live as you can get… and there are people shouting at us, supporting what we’re doing because everyone knows it needs to be done!”

Archival tape – Violet CoCo:

“Hi I’m Violet! I'm here as a supporter...”

VIOLET:

And I never thought that I would be the kind of person to climb up on top of a truck. I'm actually really terrified of heights myself. And so it’s quite a big deal for me to get up in that situation.

Archival tape – Violet Coco:

“...They’re glued to the road, and they will be here to defend our beautiful country.”

VIOLET:

But we found ourselves up there and I remember seeing the helicopters flying around, capturing the footage, and then it seemed to be over quite quickly really.

Archival tape – Violet CoCo:

“This is an emergency situation, we're in an emergency! And we have to act now!”

VIOLET:

When I was arrested, the police came up to the truck and at first they sort of tackled me to the ground, to grab my phone. And I remember that, you know, we had agreed to go limp because this is the best way to not resist the police.

So it's a classic activist move to just not resist at all, to just allow ourselves to be limp so that there's no, no resistance at all.

And I remember the police trying to get me off the truck at this point and feeling really unsafe.

Archival tape – Violet CoCo:

“I’m 31 years old, and I was hoping to be starting a family right now… but I’m too afraid, I’m too afraid to.”

RUBY:

Right, and you ended up facing several charges including explosive offences linked to the use of a flare, and resisting arrest as well. When your case came in front of the Courts, in front of Magistrate Allison Hawkins, you were sentenced to 15 months in prison. What was that moment like, hearing that sentence?

VIOLET:

I was in the room with my mother and I just went in to calming her down. To be honest, I was just trying to let her know that I would have an option for appeal. And as the security guards were taking me away, I saw her collapse. And that was probably one of the hardest moments of my life to not be able to be there for her and to see her go through that. I knew what I was facing. I knew the repercussions of my actions. And I accepted the potential that this was going to happen before I took the action itself. So they had just changed the laws. The laws had come into effect just over ten days before we took this action. So I knew that it was potential that I would see prison for doing this. I don't think that I should have. I don't think that activists… peaceful activists should never go to prison. That is absolutely abominable and a blight on our democracy. But regardless, I knew that that was a possible trajectory. And I had long accepted that that was a possible trajectory for myself. And I was willing to do that to be able to sound the alarm on the climate and ecological emergency. But the hardest part was seeing my mother go through it.

RUBY:

And Hawkins also referred to this ambulance that police at the time said had been halted by the protests. So she said, and I'm quoting from her comments here, “you've halted an ambulance under light and siren. What about the person in there? What about that person and their family? What do they think of you and your cause?” I mean, at the point at which you were told about that ambulance and presumably believed that, you know, it was true that it had been held up. What did you think about those questions?

VIOLET:

Well, the thing is that when I was on the truck that day, I saw all the traffic moving freely around us. So from day dot, we knew that it was a false fact that the police had inserted in there And we couldn’t come out and say it, because we had to let the courts and justice expose itself in due course. We absolutely knew that we had not blocked an ambulance that day. And, and so yeah. To hear Hawkins sentence me on that fact was quite devastating.

There's always a place in my mind where I thought that I might end up spending over a year in prison. And I'm very lucky. When I was sitting in the cells, I had Eddie Lloyd call me up, who is a lawyer from Lismore where I've moved to, and her family's house was destroyed in the floods and she called me up and she said, “I think I could really get you out of this.” And I will be so ever, ever grateful for Eddie for that phone call and for the case that she read that really did save my life.

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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Archival tape – Channel 7 News:

“It's not often climate protesters have reason to celebrate.”

Archival tape – Violet CoCo:

“My body was awash with relief in December.”

Archival tape – Channel 7 News:

“Deanna CoCo and Alan Glover were facing jail terms. She got 15 months. But this vision today persuaded the district court to set them free on conditional release. The protests lasted 28 minutes. Last week, police withdrew a claim it blocked an emergency ambulance.“

RUBY:

So Violet, on Wednesday last week your 15 month jail sentence was overturned. Tell me what it was like to hear that news?

VIOLET:

It was such a relief to have the truth come out, for people to really know that we had not blocked that ambulance.

I'm ever grateful for the Environmental Defender's Office for doing the research and bringing forward the evidence and pushing the police to change this fact so that it said there was no ambulance blocked. But it doesn't surprise me what the police did, because the police are really taking their cues from the police minister, who is part of the Perrottet government. And it doesn't look good when climate protesters are out every week trying to draw attention to the climate emergency.

RUBY:

And did you have a moment at all during this process — I mean either while you were being held on remand or after you were sentenced — that fear did creep in.

VIOLET:

Of course. Of course. Courage isn't the lack of fear. I'm very you know, I do get afraid. I do fear for myself. I don't want to spend time in prison. I don't I don't want to have to do any of this. But one day you find out your planet is being murdered and all of a sudden you have to face those fears. And we have to stand up and protect the liveability of our planet. So of course I feel fear, but that is not going to get in the way of me being courageous.

This is too important. This is too big. There is too much at stake here and injustice doesn’t cause people to cower, injustice causes people to stand up and do what's right? And that's what we saw after I was put in prison. We saw protests around the country in sizes that we haven't seen since pre-COVID. People came out and blocked roads because there was injustice. And that's what we will see. The more that they try to scare us, the more they try to repress us, the louder and the stronger we will become.

RUBY:

And so you were one the first people to be prosecuted under new anti-protest laws that were brought in in NSW in April last year. Those laws create penalties - so jail time for blocking public and private infrastructure. And police have also been seeking bail conditions that mean that protesters, like you, can’t contact each other or even enter the city of Sydney after they've been arrested. And critics say that this entire thing, it's all designed to intimidate people to stop them from protesting. So my question is, having been through this system now, are you intimidated?

VIOLET:

I think it's making people more bold. I think it's a call to action. I think that when we look at our right to protest, we know that what we have to do is be courageous and challenge these laws with our bodies. If we back down, if we try to find other ways to do things, then what we're saying is that we're going to succumb to the fear. But but what we really have to be doing is challenging them and standing up and say, actually, we it's part of our human rights that we have a right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and and that that it's time now to be as loud and as as courageous as possible because we have such a short amount of time to make a difference on the liveability of our planet, or we're going to lose everything.

RUBY:

And I mean you've spoken a bit about how this journey began for you and I suppose you know, right at the, kind of, beginning of your joining the movement, you probably wouldn't have imagined getting arrested, spending time in jail. Has this gone further than you kind of imagined that it would? And how do you feel about that now?

VIOLET:

Oh look, I feel honoured to have the space to be able to participate in this movement in such a big way. I came into the movement just before I was about to start a family and actually decided to not start a family in favour of doing this work because it seemed so necessary, which was also why I burnt the pram outside Parliament House a few years ago. It was symbolic of our, our inability, my inability, my fear around having kids in the climate breakdown.

And so I feel, yeah, I feel lucky to, to be able to participate in the way that I do. And, and I know that there are many people out there who are starting to step up and even parents who are starting to step up because they know what's at stake for their kids.

RUBY:

Violet, thank you so much for your time today.

VIOLET:

Thank you so much.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

Five people have been found guilty in one of the biggest tax fraud cases in Australian history.

The scheme cost the commonwealth some $105 million. The trial heard a company the defendants were involved in, collected gross wages from employers – but then money that should have gone to the Australian Tax Office by way of GST and Pay As You Go (PAYG) was syphoned off to other companies.

Sentencing in the case is set for early May.

And…

Britain’s metropolitan police is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic, according to a landmark report, commissioned by the police force.

The report found 12% of women in the force said they had been harassed or attacked at work, and one-third said they experienced sexism.

The report’s author Baroness Louise Casey warned that quote: “Public consent is broken” and that the public had the lowest trust in the MET in its history.

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

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