by Sara Sullivan / Climate-Connections
1992 Protest in Tasmania. PhotoLangelle.org
According to Rick Morton in The Australian:
The Tasmanian government’s controversial anti-protest laws targeting “dreadlocked” forestry industry disrupters are so broad they could capture parents, pensioners and anyone else who “hinders” business, a labor law firm has warned unions.
Hindering can include any kind of delay or inconvenience caused.
“According to the legislation, a business does not even need to be harmed economically to meet the test,” [Tasmanian Law Society Anthony Mihal] said.
“If a protester briefly blocks a taxi, van and a truck, each one of those vehicles, being a business, counts as a separate offense against the act.
“A judge has to fine the protester a minimum of $5000 for the first offense and the second offence, which could happen in the same protest, would attract a penalty of three months’ imprisonment and up to two years.”
Organisations face fines of $100,000, with $10,000 for officials.
This push to limit environmental protest is linked, of course, to the push for increased logging of protected areas of the Tasmanian forest spearheaded most recently by Tony Abbott.
The struggle for Tasmania’s forests has been going on for decades, as noted by the above photo from GJEP Board Chair and Co-Founder Orin Langelle from a protest in Tasmania in 1992. The Forestry Commission was shut down for the day.
