{"id":17083,"date":"2014-04-10T23:50:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T13:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=17083"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:58:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:58:08","slug":"leardblockade-protestors-remain-positive-despite-eviction-l_k_oconnor-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/leardblockade-protestors-remain-positive-despite-eviction-l_k_oconnor-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"#leardblockade protestors remain positive despite eviction: @l_k_oconnor reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LEARD\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On March 31 over 100 people walked onto the Whitehaven Maules Creek coal mine to protest and more than 80 were arrested. Work at the mine was halted for a day and events were widely reported by the mainstream media.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations coincided with a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that predicted devastating consequences for agriculture, traditional ownership and the economy in the wake of climate change.<\/p>\n

One of the demonstrators, Simon Outred, who holds the cause very close to his heart, is concerned that his right to protest is not being protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are taking everybody that was on the mine site [to the magistrates\u2019 court] they all got court attendances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He recalled being stopped by police two days after the arrests, at road closures that prevented any kind of travel between the towns or the mine site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked the cops \u2018why are the roads closed?\u2019\u201d he said, \u201cwe were asking \u2018under what law are you doing this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve just passed laws in Victoria now that allow police to move people on under suspicion of [public disturbance],\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s public road, public land.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mass arrests, road blockages and high level security at the Idemitsu and Whitehaven Maules Creek mines have not deterred demonstrators like Lyle Davis, a Yuin traditional owner from the Illawarra, who said: \u201cIt\u2019ll go until there\u2019s not a tree or blade of grass on the planet, until there is no drinkable water. Until they stop, we\u2019ll be here as a preventative to their stupidity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just days after the mass arrests on Monday, April 1, four other campaigners from the Pilliga CSG camp were arrested for locking-on.<\/p>\n

Crystal Hodgson and Ursula Da Silva were two of the women interviewed on Sunday by visiting University of Technology Sydney journalism students. After they were arrested and separated by police, Hodgson was taken into custody three hours away in Boggabilla, and Da Silva to Moree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people to start stepping up to the next level where they\u2019re prepared to get arrested,\u201d Da Silva was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about taking action before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 On March 31 over 100 people walked onto the Whitehaven Maules Creek coal mine to protest and more than 80 were arrested. Work at the mine was halted for a day and events were widely reported by the mainstream media. The demonstrations coincided with a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":17086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,1584,1739,514,585],"tags":[2674,168,1088,2659,242,260,2561,749,1485,1731,1294],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/LEARD-BLOCKADE.jpg?fit=799%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-4rx","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}