The Greens have condemned Newcastle City Council's extraordinary decision to prohibit Rising Tide from using community-owned land for future climate protests, as NSW Police take the peaceful climate movement to the Supreme Court and the Minns Labor Government moves to pass special legislation protecting the expansion of the Mount Pleasant coal mine.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment and climate change Sue Higginson said the coordinated political and legal pressure against climate protesters was an alarming escalation in Labor's efforts to protect the coal industry from public scrutiny and opposition.
Greens Leader Senator David Shoebridge said:
"Labor is taking its orders directly from the coal industry, again."
"This decision shows the extent of fossil fuel capture of the Labor party all the way from Local Councils to Federal Parliament."
"These protests were working and that is exactly why the fossil fuel industry got their people in the Liberal and Labor parties to try and ban them."
"While Anthony Albanese is in Türkiye at COP31 talking big on Australia's climate ambitions at home they are blocking protest, approving coal and gas projects and taking the fossil fuel industry's cash."
"Labor wants applause at COP for its climate leadership while it keeps approving new coal and gas, including a decades‑long extension of the North West Shelf, and that double game is exactly why thousands of people keep turning up in Newcastle every year."
"Labor listens to the money and works alongside the polluters, the Greens listen to the people and work alongside them in our fight for a safe future, because that's what's at stake here."
NSW Greens MP, solicitor, and spokesperson for Climate Change Sue Higginson said:
"NSW Labor has completely lost its way. While the climate crisis accelerates and Australia is leading global climate negotiations at COP31, the Minns Government is rewriting climate laws for coal corporations in violation of the High Court, taking peaceful protesters to court (again) and supporting a Newcastle Council decision to exclude climate campaigners from public land,"
"The people of Newcastle and NSW have every right to peacefully protest the ongoing expansion of coal mining and exports through their city. That right belongs to the community, and it cannot be extinguished because Minns and a select few Labor politicians find the message inconvenient,"
"Newcastle is home to the world's largest coal export port, and the people who live there are on the front line of the climate crisis. Rising Tide has brought thousands of people together to demand action on coal, and Labor's response is to try to shut them down,"
"Three Labor Newcastle councillors stood with the Greens to defend the right to protest, but their colleague, Premier Chris Minns' minion, with the deciding vote chose to impose an extraordinary and indefinite exclusion on Rising Tide. This is a disgraceful decision that will stand as a historic mistake,"
"At the same time, NSW Police are in the Supreme Court trying to prohibit a peaceful flotilla protest from going ahead in the latest attack on legitimate and peaceful democratic activity. Rising Tide has made clear that Saturday's event is intended to be peaceful, fun gathering to highlight COP31, and the police should be facilitating that democratic expression rather than fighting it in court,"
"The Minns Government's rushing of special legislation through Parliament to protect the billion-dollar Mount Pleasant coal operation from the consequences of a landmark climate law decision is about as egregious as it gets. Labor is prepared to change the law for coal corporations while making it harder and harder for ordinary people to exercise their democratic rights,"
"These decisions expose just how deeply the coal industry has embedded itself in the political priorities of NSW Labor. Coal corporations have extraordinary access to government, while the communities demanding a safe climate are met with police, courts and political exclusion,"
"The Greens stand with Rising Tide and everyone exercising their right to peaceful protest. Newcastle Council should reverse this decision, NSW Police should safely facilitate Saturday's assembly, and the Minns Government must abandon its special protection for the Mount Pleasant coal mine. Anything less is a deep betrayal of our community and climate," Ms Higginson said.
