Climate activists have been “intimidated” and “frightened” from protesting by sweeping new laws that impose jail terms for demonstrations that disrupt major roads or public facilities, the New South Wales supreme court has heard.
Simply gathering near a train station in the city could see protesters jailed, environmental campaigners have told the court, so broad are the new laws’ powers.
“The impact of these laws have been to intimidate me,” the environmental activist and member of the Knitting Nannas, Helen Kvelde, told the court in an affidavit, part of a constitutional legal challenge to the laws.
The new laws, amendments to the Crimes Act passed by the NSW parliament last April, impose jail terms of up to two years, and fines of $22,000, for protesters who cause “damage or disruption” to major roads or major public facilities.
Two members of the Knitting Nannas environmental advocacy group, Kvelde and Dominique Jacobs, supported by the NSW Environmental Defenders Office, have challenged the constitutionality of the new laws in the supreme court.
The case argues the new laws are unconstitutional because they infringe on protesters’ freedom of political expression.