The New South Wales Government will hold a 21-year-old climate and refugee activist in a detention centre for a month after he protested against the Federal Government’s inhumane treatment of refugees. It says an awful lot about what the government thinks of activism and the harsh conditions refugees face in this country.
Blockade Australia activists Arno, Tom and others shut down the entrance to Port Botany in Sydney last Tuesday. They were demanding the government free the refugees, asylum seekers and other detainees in detention centres.
Arno suspended himself on a bipod above four lanes of traffic on Sirius Road. He was carrying a banner that read, “No Borders, No Nations, Stop Australia’s Operation”.
The Federal Department of Home Affairs revoked Arno and Tom’s visas last week. Arno appeared in court on Wednesday and was granted bail until his next court hearing in May. But he will be detained at the Villawood detention centre until he reappears in court.
Blockade Australia slammed the government’s decision in a statement on Wednesday. It argued the treatment of Arno and Tony went “well beyond the extent of normal police and judicial response for non-violent climate protest”.
“There is a disgusting irony in this repressive response to an activist who hung up a banner… and called for the freedom of refugees and other detainees from Australia’s system of concentration camps,” an unnamed Blockade Australia spokesperson said in the statement.
“Blockade Australia condemns the government’s draconian overreach and calls for the reversal of this visa decision, the freedom of these two activists, and the freedom of all people detained in concentration camps run by Australia.”
The court’s decision comes a week after the government accused Blockade Australia activists of affecting regular Australians as if the horrific floods didn’t just do that.
Blockade Australia’s protests are non-violent and designed to hit the government where it hurts — its wallet. The activist group had been targeting Port Botany this week because it was mostly used by industrial and port workers.
Spokesman for Blockade Australia Greg Rolles told PEDESTRIAN.TV many media outlets were quick to accuse the climate activists of affecting average Aussies for blocking the road into the port. But these outlets seemed to forget climate change was doing that tenfold.
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