Protesters who faced a $22,000 fine or two years in prison for demonstrating in Sydney under tough laws championed by the Perrottet government have instead walked away without convictions or with modest financial penalties, a lawyer for the activists says.
New South Wales police charged at least 20 people with a range of offences during Blockade Australia protests in Sydney last June.
The offences included seriously disrupting or obstructing traffic on a major bridge, tunnel or road, the new laws subject to harsh penalties including a maximum fine of $22,000 or two years’ imprisonment.
But lawyer Mark Davis, who is representing 18 people charged with the offence, says the vast majority received only minor penalties.
Last month, 15 of the cases were resolved, Davis said, with six protesters receiving non-convictions, and the rest receiving modest fines of between $100 and $800.
Three more cases are set to be heard later this month.
The new laws were passed last April, with the then-NSW government saying previous penalties had not prevented protests.
“The old laws, at $400 a pop, were no deterrent,” the then-NSW attorney general, Mark Speakman, said last June.
“It’s hard to imagine that $22,000 fine or two years in jail won’t deter a lot of people. It may be there’s a tiny core that will protest, regardless.”
At the time of the charges, activists told the Guardian that the harsh new penalties were unlikely to deter them.
The then-premier, Dominic Perrottet, described the Blockade Australia activists as “bloody idiots”, and his then-deputy, Paul Toole, said they should “go and get a real job”.
But Davis said it was clear the judiciary did not share the opinion of the then-government regarding the right to protest.
“This is the trouble with over-criminalising very simple activities,” he said.
Another protester charged under the laws, Deanna “Violet” Coco, faced a Western Australian court on Thursday in relation to another act of environmental activism.
She was convicted and fined $200 after she admitted spray painting four yellow Woodside Energy logos on the front windows of the Perth police centre on Wednesday.
Magistrate Matthew Walton said Coco appeared to have “legitimate personal beliefs”.
“You don’t have to go too far abroad to see the restrictions on personal freedoms and activism,” he said.
“In a lot of regards you should be commended. However, you breached the law ... you went too far on this occasion.”
Coco was also ordered to pay $500 in damages.
Coco, who was jailed and then released last year after being charged with offences relating to activism in NSW, was remanded in custody on Wednesday night after her arrest.
She said in a statement that she had travelled to Western Australia to stand in solidarity with protesters opposing the development of the Burrup peninsula.
