Protesters have scaled back their plan to block the Port of Newcastle to 30 hours, down from an initial 50 hours, amid a legal challenge by New South Wales police to stop the action going ahead.
On Tuesday, police and the protest organiser – Rising Tide – appeared in the supreme court for a second day. Police are challenging the protest, which would involve activists paddling into the harbour on kayaks and rafts to stop coal exports leaving the port.
The group had planned a weeklong “protestival” – including workshops and live music – on a beach in Newcastle and to block the harbour for 50 hours. On Monday, organisers submitted a new application, reducing the scope of the blockade to 30 hours and activities on the beach to four days.
But the police assistant commissioner Dave Waddell told the court he maintained the same safety concerns for the police and public.
“We can still not mitigate against weather and conditions,” he said.
Waddell said police were concerned that the protesters would enter the water regardless of whether the protest was authorised. He said that if they do, police would arrest people as soon as they entered the shipping lane.
The port is thought to be the largest coal export operation in the world.
It is the second year in a row that Rising Tide had planned such a protest at the port. In 2023, police accepted the group’s form 1 to block the port for 30 hours.
That protest drew international attention when police charged more than 100 people after protesters blocked the coal port beyond the agreed deadline. Among those arrested was a 97-year-old church minister.
One of the protest’s organisers, Briohny Coglin, appeared in court on Tuesday and estimated that about 3,000 people attended the 2023 event, and about 350 people blocked the port.
She said organisers were estimating 5,500 people could attend the event on 19 November, but she could not say if that would result in more people trying to block the port.
Coglin was questioned by Lachlan Gyles SC, who represented the commissioner of police, about last year’s mass arrests, and whether the organisers’ intention was for more people to be arrested this year. She rejected that assertion.
“I will not be encouraging anyone to get arrested. I’ll be letting them know it’s not in their interest,” she said.
Coglin said the organisers had arranged for Greenpeace and surf life savers to be involved in the event to advise on weather conditions and safety.
The organisers say they are protesting to demand the government immediately cancel all new fossil fuel projects and end all coal exports from Newcastle by 2030. They are also calling for the government to tax fossil fuel export profits at 78%, and to put that money towards community and industrial transition away from fossil fuels.
In his closing arguments, Gyles argued that police recognised the important right to protest but argued “their cause can be accommodated in many different ways which don’t create that level of disruption”.
He said the right to free speech and public assembly was weighed up against other considerations, including other people’s right to use the land where the “protestival” will be held.
Gyles said “the wheels of commerce” should be allowed “to turn” at the port.
Neal Funnell, the lawyer for Rising Tide, argued that with the exception of coal ships, other commercial and recreational vessels would not be impacted. He said there was no evidence the 30-hour blockade would result in financial implications.
“This is a case about the right to protest,” he said.
“Although, of course, your honour would be aware that making a prohibition order won’t stop the protest from proceeding.”
