Coal protest sentences spur mandatory penalties call

Carmichael coal owner Adani is calling for mandatory penalties for repeat activist offenders after the sentencing of two men who stopped a Bowen Rail Company train loaded with coal last year. Kyle Magee, 38, and Franz James Dowling, 25, pleaded guilty in Bowen Magistrates Court to charges of trespassing on a railway, contravening police direction, and obstruction of a railway. Mr Magee pleaded guilty to an additional charge of obstructing police. Mr Magee was sentenced to three months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and fined a total of $1000 while Mr Dowling received fines totalling $1200. Each was ordered to pay $500 in compensation to Carmichael mine operator Bravus Mining and Resources. Adani said the two anti-fossil fuel activists blocked the Newlands rail line for more than 24 hours last December, which meant no rail traffic from any mines could use the line and coal could not be transported to the port for export. The charge of obstructing a railway carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment. Adani Australia chief executive officer and country head Lucas Dow said it was time the Queensland and Federal governments got serious about protecting coal, rail, and port workers from activists who made their workplaces dangerous by legislating mandatory penalties for repeat activist offenders. “At a time when NSW has increased penalties for people found guilty of staging protests like this including jail time, Queensland continues to hand out minimal sentences that do not reflect the seriousness of the offences, the danger they cause and the cost to our community,” Mr Dow said. “It’s time the Queensland and Federal governments backed hi-vis workers and made sure the penalties handed out are tough enough to deter these activists from reoffending. “These dangerous and illegal protests put workers’ lives at risk and rob Queenslanders of revenue which should be used to employ more nurses and teachers and build better schools, hospitals and roads.” In a statement published by Frontline Action on Coal Mr Dowling said “future generations will be shocked when they find out that polluting industries who make millions from knowingly destroying our planet are given government subsidies to do so; while the ordinary people who try to stop them are arrested, fined and thrown in prison. "But that’s exactly why we need to take dramatic actions like these to protect our planet, and that’s why prison sentences will not deter people with a conscience from resisting this destructive industry.”

Coal protest sentences spur mandatory penalties call

Industry Queensland

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