Reverend Jeff McKinnon appeared at the Launceston Magistrate’s court on a charge of trespass inside the National Australia Bank in the Brisbane Street Mall (Launceston) on 5 December 2024.
He was found guilty and fined $300 plus court costs.
“The National Australia Bank topped the charts amongst the banks as the biggest Australian fossil fuel lender in 2023,” said McKinnon regarding the motive for his protest.
“They loaned $1.4 billion to fossil fuels that year alone, including $860 million to companies with coal, oil and gas expansion plans.”
“The bank is now taking steps to address shareholder concerns over its greenwashing, but giant leaps are needed to fix the bank’s policy.”
In a letter to the bank’s CEO, Andrew Irvine, Extinction Rebellion Northern Tasmania demanded that he publicly announce a timetabled phasing-out of all funding of all fossil fuel projects in line with the repeated calls of climate scientists.
Leading climate experts, including the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, agree that achieving the Paris Agreement’s climate goals requires no new coal, oil or gas developments
McKinnon is part of an ongoing protest this summer by Extinction Rebellion Northern Tasmania, highlighting the continuing massive funding of fossil fuels by the big four Australian banks: NAB, Commonwealth, Westpac and ANZ.
Between them the big banks have invested over $61 billion dollars in coal, oil and gas in the past decade, since the Paris Agreement. Over this summer there have been five Extinction Rebellion arrests in three local banks.
