City of Newcastle Lord Mayor, Ross Kerridge, has provided his formal support to the Rising Tide climate action protest event planned for Newcastle Harbour next week.
Protest organisers met with Dr Kerridge yesterday and provided the Lord Mayor with reassurance that they intend to hold a peaceful event at Camp Shortland, a section of the Foreshore Park precinct between Horseshoe and Nobbys beaches.
They committed to taking action to focus on safety and obeying police, the Lord Mayor said.
“I have today provided my formal support for the Rising Tide event occurring at Camp Shortland. I did however stress my expectation that the event organisers take all reasonable efforts to ensure that any closure of the harbour is for the briefest possible time,” the Lord Mayor said.
“As a result of our meeting and my request, the Rising Tide organisers provided me with a written commitment to use their best endeavours to ensure all participants obey police directions.
“Specifically, this includes directing people to remain close to the shore and not enter the shipping channel, nor make movements that suggest they are attempting to get into the channel.”
Lord Mayor Kerridge said Rising Tide had also committed to direct protestors to follow police directions, and would warn participants of the consequences of likely arrest if they do not obey police.
“Lastly, Rising Tide committed to discouraging people from disruptive activities away from the harbour such as stopping coal trains,” he said.
In information offered online to those registering for the protest, Rising Tide describes the planned action as “a peaceful and disruptive flotilla to stop coal exports from the world’s largest coal port for 50 hours”.
After the Newcastle action, Rising Tide will head directly to Parliament House in Canberra to demand Prime Minister Anthony Albanese answer the question: “When will you stop new coal and gas?”.
For the last three days of the sitting Parliament for 2024, protestors plan to occupy Parliament lawns with “a peaceful vigil against fossil fuel expansion”.
Newcastle Council received 123 submissions on Rising Tide’s request to hold an event at Camp Shortland. Almost 75% of these submissions were supportive of the event occurring, the Lord Mayor says.
“I also encourage everyone attending the event to look after the sensitive coastal environment at Camp Shortland and respect residents and visitors in the vicinity of the event,” he said.
Council received independent legal advice confirming that its authority to issue a permit for the event on its land at Camp Shortland does not impact the ability of NSW Police to exercise their powers of arrest for any offences.
