UNSW Education Officer’s midnight arrest for snap protest condemned as “oppressive”

By CHRISTINE LAI

UNSW Education Officer Cherish Kuehlmann was arrested at midnight on Saturday following a snap protest for justice against the rental and housing crisis on Friday. The event was held at Commonwealth Bank in Martin Place.

Kuehlmann released a public statement through the UNSW Education Collective’s Facebook Group, criticising the midnight arrest by the police, calling their attempt an “extreme measure” to “impede on the right to protest in NSW”.

The Education Officer was arrested at an Eastlakes unit around 12.30am on Saturday and detained at Day Street police station on charges of aggravated trespass. She was held in custody overnight before being released at 4am.

I have been arrested and charged with “aggravated trespassing” for protesting against the housing crisis last Friday. Help me fight this attempt at police intimidation by signing the petition and getting to Friday’s protest 5:30pm Town Hall! https://t.co/TzLhn7tkJU pic.twitter.com/2Z38YoxgRk

— Cherish Kuehlmann (@__cherishk) February 21, 2023

Kuehlmann explained the reason for the protest against Commonwealth Bank and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), writing in her statement “low-income renters and working-class homeowners are the ones feeling the brunt of this housing crisis”.

“This is because greedy landlords jack up rents or refuse to give up their investment properties to renters at all. As well as the top four banks in Australia have raked in $2 trillion dollars from household debt, after multiple interest rate rises. The real criminals in this crisis are the banks, the landlords and the federal and state governments who do nothing”, she said.

Kuehlmann spoke to City Hub denouncing NSW police, deeming it “outrageous” that the “cops are out to protect Philip Lowe and politicians by arresting me in the middle of the night and that they’re trying to intimidate young people protesting the housing crisis”.

“It was a deliberate choice to wait until midnight to come to my house, wake me and my housemate up and detain me for hours because I was involved in protesting against the hugely wealthy institutions that are profiting from the cost-of-living disaster”, Kuehlmann said.

She declared that it was an “attack” on the right to protest and “all young people facing rent increases, threatened with evictions and homelessness, and working families with rising mortgage interest rates”.

Bail conditions following midnight arrest 

Kuehlmann was granted strict conditional bail where she must reside at a designated address in Eastlakes and not go within 2km of Sydney Town Hall except in cases of “legal or medical appointments”.

The UNSW Ed Officer spoke about being held in custody, stating that she had spent “hours and hours in a tiny police cell”, and that “no one should have to do that”.

She was charged with “Aggravated Unlawful Entry on Inclosed Land”, which, under the Inclosed Land Protection Act 1901 (NSW) and the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), includes facing imprisonment for maximum 12 months, and/or a fine of $13 200.

Sydney Greens Councillor condemns arrest as “oppressive”

Randwick Greens councillor Kym Chapple expressed her disdain for Kuehlmann’s arrest via a Twitter post on Monday.

Chapple captioned her post, “Arresting a student activist in the middle of the night days after a protest is oppressive and unnecessary but that’s exactly what happened to UNSW education officer Cherish Kuehlmann last night!”

The Greens councillor commended the student activist for “standing up against banks gouging people and greedy landlords”, emphasising the “fundamental right” to “peaceful protest” in NSW. Chapple condemned attacks from both the Liberal and Labor parties, and their backing of the anti-protest laws which has seen harsher penalties for protesters.

In April last year, both houses passed the Roads and Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2022  where the expanded offence now covers roads, train stations, ports and public and private infrastructure.

People who have been charged with protesting illegally on “public roads, rail lines, tunnels, bridges and industrial estates” will face a maximum penalty of 200 penalty units ($22,000) or imprisonment for two years, or both, as per the amendment to Section 144G.

Kuehlmann shared Chapple’s Twitter post, describing the arrest as an “outrageous intimidation of activists and violation of my civil liberties by NSW police”. In her post, she added that she would be challenging the “ heinous charge and bail conditions”.

The National Union of Students (NUS) have called a snap rally at Town Hall this Friday to continue the “fight against the people responsible for this”, Kuehlmann said.

A campaign has been created to drop the charges against Kuehlmann. There have been 150 signatures on the petition to date.

Kuehlmann is set to face Downing Centre Local Court on March 8.