The validity of charges against 14 Queensland activists facing the possibility of jail for a climate protest inside the state parliament has been questioned in court, as the case was adjourned on Monday.
The group face charges – not laid in more than 30 years – of disturbing the legislature during a protest in which they unfurled banners with anti-fossil fuel slogans from the public gallery and interrupted question time by chanting for about three minutes last November.
The charges fall under section 56 of Queensland’s criminal code, which sets a three-year maximum jail term. But a Brisbane court heard on Monday that a later section of the same act repeals section 56 as an offence.
Section 717 of the criminal code explicitly says that a person cannot be charged with, prosecuted, convicted or punished for disturbing the legislature.
The police prosecutor Martin Payne lodged a lengthy written submission over which section of Queensland’s laws was in effect at the time of the protest in parliament after amendments to the legislation in 2012.
The barrister for the defendants, Andrew Hoare, said there was “no ambiguity” over which section of the law was involved but had not had a chance to submit his own written submission.
The magistrate Joseph Pinder gave Hoare five days to do so.
In a separate complication, Pinder told the defence and prosecutors that he would not consider proceedings against all 14 defendants at once.
The magistrate said there had been no application to hear all the charges together and that it “reflects rather poorly on the prosecution and defence” that both parties had tried to proceed without such an order.
Hoare said there had been an application for a joint trial in May but Pinder said there was no record of it.
The case of Lee Coaldrake, a former medical practitioner and wife of the former Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake, was the only case that Pinder was prepared to hear – she proceeded to plead not guilty to one charge of disrupting the legislature.
The other 13 defendants, who range in age from 24 to 88, were scheduled to have their cases mentioned on 13 November and all defendants had their bail continued.
The confusion of the morning was amplified by the fact that those in the gallery – including the 14 accused – could not hear much of what was said.
The ambiguity left one of the accused, 24-year-old Moorooka woman Aisling Geraghty, to describe the result as “disappointing”.
“I study, I work and this is a lot of stress in the background,” she said of the looming charges. “Now we face more stress, more injustice … the court forgets that there are people behind all the paper.”
Another protester, a school drama production assistant, Tracy Hickey, also said the last 11 months had been a difficult period but like Geraghty she had no regrets.
“It has been a bit of stress but nothing compared to the anxiety I feel for the children I teach if we don’t address the climate crisis,” Hickey said.
Outside the 14 were greeted to cheers and chants from dozens of supporters waving Extinction Rebellion flags, including the high-profile activist Violet Coco, who was sentenced to 15 months in jail for blocking one lane of traffic in Sydney last April. Her sentence was quashed on appeal.
Coco led chants and gave a speech hailing the 14 “brave souls”.
“Who are the real criminals here?” she said, pointing the finger at fossil fuel companies and governments she said were driving climate collapse.
“I know the people who face court today are heroes.”
