In late 2019, senior Labor-left figures said they were concerned about the mass arrests of the Extinction Rebellion climate activists who glued themselves to Brisbane’s roads during peak hour traffic in protest of the Morrison government and the coal/gas industry.

One MP said, “the right to protest or strike is part of what Labor was built on”.

Labor’s Annerley branch unanimously passed a motion that read: “it was chilling to see the mass arrests of people who had been protesting in Brisbane streets in August 2019… we should be extremely concerned by the potential for harsh penalties imposed on innocuous activities such as trespass on agricultural land”.

Meanwhile Labor’s New Farm branch posted on social media that the government should be cracking down on carbon emitting motor vehicles rather than unhinged climate protestors.

Fast forward two and a half years later and the situation has only gotten worse, likely due in part to Labor and the Green’s support for climate-inspired civil unrest… and the best example is Blockade Australia – an even more radical version of Extinction Rebellion that “organises mobilisations and choses targets of economic, political, social and material importance to the Australian operation”.

• After launching in early November 2021, a 24-year-old activist working for Blockade Australia locked himself into a hole in the ground inside a reinforced car on the railway to Port Newcastle – the world’s largest coal export port. Meanwhile another activist suspended “themselves” (note the “gender non-specific language”) up an electrical pylon above the same rail line for three hours.
• On the 10^th of November, Eric “Sergio” Herbert climbed atop a coal train in the Hunter to disrupt Newcastle’s coal industry. After Sergio was criticised for his selfish actions, his model twin sisters leapt to his defence, comparing him to Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks.
• On the 15^th, a young woman locked her arm into a pipe on the rail line to Port Newcastle.
• On the 17^th, two young women abseiled off coal handling machinery at the Port.
• The next day, at least one person entered Newcastle Port and hit multiple emergency stop buttons, shutting the entire port down for six hours.

After a few months of flying under the radar over Christmas, Blockade Australia hit back, and now they’re targeting Sydney.

• On the 22^nd of February this year, five people received infringement notices after police dragged them off the road on Sydney’s busy Spit Bridge during peak hour.
• Three weeks later, there was another blockade at the Spit Bridge during peak hour traffic.
• On Tuesday, Blockade Australia took it to a whole new level when a 23-year-old German man named Tom blocked one of the main roads into Port Botany by suspending himself off a pole. Tom said, “Botany Bay was where Australia started and that it’s time to shut down the system where it began.”
• On Wednesday, two wildlife carers turned climate activists blocked Penrhyn Road in Port Botany with trucks. At the same time Arno – a 21-year-old German – blocked all trucks and cars from entering/exiting Port Botany terminal. While doing so he held up a banner that read “No Borders, No Nations, Stop Australia's Operation.”
• On Thursday morning, Alex Pearse – an “environmental scientist” who admitted he “worked for the government to enact change from within” – blocked the rail line leading in and out of Port Botany by suspending himself on a pole. Alex said, “we should get rid of fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy, drive around in electric cars, put solar panels on our roofs and have community gardens everywhere”.
• As if it couldn’t get any worse, Blockade Australia is planning their biggest protest yet in Sydney between the 27^th of June and 2^nd of July later this year.

What’s the lesson to draw from all this absurdity?

Labor and the Greens sympathise with these people and their disruptive, dangerous and utterly unhinged forms of protest.

Well-funded climate activists are mobilising in ways we’ve never seen before, warranting mandatory jail sentences and fines for those who engage in such acts.

Most of all however, these people won’t stop messing with our lives and industries until we stop them.

As the old-adage goes, “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile”.

We can’t make the same mistakes as sleepy Joe Biden did with the communist Antifa thugs in America…