Climate Activist Spared Jail Over Blockade

Police officers detain a protestor during a rally in Sydney. Climate activist group Blockade Australia stage a protest in Sydney, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (AAP Image/Flavio Brancaleone)

A climate change activist who suspended himself above a train track at a Sydney port has avoided jail despite his “irresponsible, unlawful” protest.

On Dec. 15, Wenzel Valentine Auch was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order and fined $1350 (US$950) for his role in protests planned by Blockade Australia in March this year.

Auch hung himself above a rail line near Port Botany along with fellow protester Emma Dorge, where the pair anchored themselves to a bridge and livestreamed their actions.

Magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis found the 30-year-old endangered himself and police officers who had to rescue him by abseiling down from the bridge before he refused their directions to get him to safety.

The South Lismore man attempted to halt his extraction by unsuccessfully supergluing his hand to a pole.

“The conduct here in my view was irresponsible, unlawful, and exposed [Auch] and the emergency service workers who were attempting to intervene to assist him to extreme harm,” Tsavdaridis said in Downing Centre Local Court.

In ordering the community corrections order, the magistrate noted another climate protester Violet Coco had recently been given maximum jail time of 15 months, but said it was not the court’s role to compare cases when determining Auch’s sentence.

Auch was convicted after pleading guilty to three charges of refusing to comply with a police direction, risking another person’s safety by abseiling from the bridge, and refusing to inform police of the driver of his car which was used in earlier Blockade Australia activity.

Two more serious charges of endangering the safety of a person on a railway and encouraging the operation of criminal activity were withdrawn.

Tsavdaridis supported the right to political protest but said illegal activity was not a “victimless crime” and actually harmed the community.

“Political protests, including those relating to the preservation of climate are part of the hallmarks of a democratic society. There is no reason though why those protests can’t be conducted in a lawful matter, albeit in a vociferous way,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, defence lawyer Mark Davis said Auch was a committed environmentalist who had grown up on a northern New South Wales (NSW) commune and had been absorbed in the movement from a young age.

“This man walks the talk. His beliefs are an integral part of him and they’re fundamental to his life experience,” he said.

“His involvement in this protest in Sydney was not an adventure, was not seeking a provocation with the police. It was an extension ... of the anxiety he has for his planet and his desire to do something about it.”

As for refusing to disclose the driver of his vehicle, the activist mistakenly thought he had the right to silence, Davis said.

Auch acknowledged he had “overshot the mark” with his protest and had expressed remorse for his actions, Davis added.

Outside court, the lawyer told AAP that while the magistrate’s decision was proportionate, the slew of original charges brought by police was not.

“Totally unnecessary charges were added so that the potential penalty was off the charts. So instead of just finding the most appropriate charge ... they find the most punitive charge, the most painful charge,” he said.

“The effect of that is everyone must plead not guilty because it’s too dangerous.”

With a total of 30 cases brought against climate change protesters, this would grind down the local courts’ time and resources, Davis said.