Good news!
Date: 20-Jan-12
Author: Drew Hutton
Derec Davies, the Friends of the Earth activist who was arrested for jumping on a barge in Gladstone Harbour to stop the dredging has been given a 12 month good behaviour bond, with no conviction recorded. He had been charged with offences that could have involved many thousands of dollars in fines and a $35,000 damages bill.
The judge made comments mentioning Gandhi, Daniel Robins (the young man who scaled the drill rig), me, said how terrible CSG was and then made the comment, "This court is not in the business of closing down genuine protests."
I have been an activist in Queensland for 40 years. I was arrested many times under Bjelke-Petersen but was only ever charged with relatively trivial offences. Now, the seemingly more "progressive" Bligh Labor government is charging activists with offences for peaceful protest that involve many thousands of dollars in fines in an attempt to intimidate them. The courts are starting to react to this, as many of them did in the Bjelke-Petersen era, with judgments that recognise the irrationality and authoritarianism of the government.
And we will not be intimidated.
