Image: A new youth led climate movement has big plans to occupy schools across the globe. Photo: Allison Hore.
In embarrassing, reasonably horrific news, Australia has been crowned the best country in the world at arresting climate protestors.
The Criminalisation and Repression of Climate and Environmental Protests, a new study from researchers at the University of Bristol, found that Australia clocked in at the top spot when it came to arresting those on the frontline of the climate emergency, with more than 20 per cent of our climate protests involving an arrest.
The second highest number of arrests went to the UK at 17 per cent, and surprisingly Norway, with 14.5 per cent. Of the 14 countries evaluated, the international average was 6.3 per cent, so a pretty poor show all round.
While our absolutely atrocious anti-protest laws are partly to blame, it’s also because of groups like Extinction Rebellion, who use arrests as part of their strategy for change. ER were involved in almost a third of all our climate-related protests, while the study said that in other countries, it’s largely Indigenous groups and labour groups on the frontlines.
In more good news…
Speaking of anti-protest laws, of the 14 countries, we also had the highest number of new laws that impacted our right to protest- between 2019 and 2023, we introduced five new laws across Queensland, NSW, Tasmania, Victoria, and South Australia. Unfortunately, we’ve only gone on to create more of these, especially in New South Wales.
However, the study theorised that these new laws were popping up in response to Australia’s (apparently!) low levels of police violence. As we enjoy more freedoms that others on this list, like the Phillipines or Brazil, groups that use more radical tactics pop up, which the government tries to suppress by intentionally targeting climate protestors.
Thankfully, we ranked pretty low when it came to the killings and disappearances of activists, although if Scott Morrison had his way, it could be a different story. We may be living in a post-capitalist hellscape, witnessing the destruction of the only planet we can inhabit, but hey, things could be worse.
