Climate Activists Arrested 3 Times in Launceston

Climate activists Graham Bailey and Scott Bell were arrested three times in Launceston yesterday.

Their protests were related to the need for climate action, and involved blocking traffic in the city centre.

They were bailed and will appear in court on 15 December.

Bailey and Bell were first arrested on the corner of St John and Paterson Sts at 12.30, charged with failing to obey a police instruction.

They returned to protest again at 1.30 at the same place. Their third arrest was at a different location in Cimitiere St.

Protest group Extinction Rebellion said that their action comes from ‘despair, anger and desperation’.

“They have thought long and hard about the risk of jail, weighed against the dire consequences of inaction on climate change,” explained a spokesperson. “They are doing this to take the initiative, take the personal risk, show our community that we, the people, hold the power to create change.”

Scott Bell, a retired general practitioner and a veteran of many protests, said that desperate times call for desperate actions.

“Other methods we have utilised, such as letters to newspapers, meetings with community leaders, protest activities, presentations to local schools, lobbying politicians, have failed to create the necessary legislative changes our government needs to implement, to protect the environment and consequently the people, from the effects of the climate emergency.”

“Tasmania has a history of jail time for protesters in the ‘forest wars’, of nonviolent direct action, and civil disobedience, using ourselves, our bodies, as the leverage for change.

“This is our responsibility. It is our job. Not just for ourselves and  for our  own personal safety and satisfaction, but for our families, friends, our communities , our country and ultimately  for our planet.”

He said the government has led us into many previous wars and conflicts, yet had failed to declare war against the climate emergency. “We, the people, need to step up, and declare that war,” Bell said.

“Today we take our civil disobedience to a new level,” said fellow protester says Graham Bailey. “My children and grandchildren face a horrific future. This could end in jail time. I don’t like the idea of jail but our government’s inaction on the climate crisis drives me to it.”

He declared that the protest movement would refuse to give up

“(We’ll do) whatever it takes. The government has abandoned us. This is civil disobedience.”