DEMOCRACY UNDER ATTACK
Around the nation, governments are aiming to silence environmentalists by radically changing protest laws.
Around Australia, we’re seeing an unprecedented attack on people’s right to peaceful protest, a cornerstone democratic freedom that has protected some of our most iconic landscapes.
Without citizens exercising those rights, Tasmania’s Franklin River would have been dammed, and Australia’s World Heritage-listed Gondwanan Rainforests would have been logged. But in the past 18 months, maximum fines for certain types of peaceful protest in some states increased ten-fold and prison terms trebled, and these draconian new laws, fines and prison terms are effectively stripping citizens of these rights.
Last year, for instance, NSW introduced two-year jail terms and increased
