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Crosspost.
The DBH protest was immediately framed as a violent attack on a family because state governments and police have been trying to present climate protesters as “Extremists” and “Terrorists” for years, now.
In New South Wales, anti-protest laws were passed through with the obvious aim of clamping down on climate protest, with a similar massive increase in punishments for disruptive protest.
Pair this with the flinching trigger-finger Australian media, politicians and authorities have for cruel and excessive punishment, and you end up with Australia as it currently is: a thousand times more concerned about killing climate protest than the climate crisis itself.
A variety of climate groups in Australia should have been the first ones to come out and loudly defend climate protest and enhance the message of Disrupt Burrup Hub, but their silence has been deafening.
Climate protest - particularly disruptive protest - is a vital part of creating vivid pressure in a space where routine, sameness and status-quo familiarity protect ingrained fossil fuel reliance.
The ABC’s excellent “Dig” podcast talked a bit about this in their recent season “Saving the Franklin”. Many of those involved in the extremely successful protests that founded the Australian environmental movement have unfortunately admitted that their sort of successful protest in opposition to environmental destruction simply could not happen today.
In their day, they were risking a night in gaol and maybe a small fine for a sort of “disturbing the peace”–type offence. Today’s protesters are risking serious criminal charges, and it’s just a fact that far fewer people are willing to do that.
These laws are very effective at what they’re setting out to do, and that is curtailing our most fundamental rights, and the ones essential to the healthy functioning of democracy.