LNP Bill eyes jail time for activists

IMPRISONMENT is the only “real way” to deal with the “foot soldiers” of the farm-invading animal rights movement, a North Queenslandbased pro-farmer group has said.

Green Shirts Movement national co-ordinator Martin Bella said convicting activists who trespassed on to farms and sentencing them to prison would stop the “current phenomenon” of protesters obtaining public service jobs.

Mr Bella’s comments came as part of a submission into the LNP’S industrial sabotage Private Members Bill.

The proposed laws target powerful unions and anti-adani protesters among other hecklers who plague Queensland worksites.

A 33-year-old woman was charged last week after allegedly locking herself on to heavy machinery at an Adani worksite.

“Jail time, included in the amendments, is essential. This is the only real way, along with a recorded conviction, that the ‘foot soldiers’ of this insurgency can be dealt with,” Mr Bella said. “The previous lenience has seen this become almost a sport which many regard as fun, with no consideration of the horrible impact they cause.”

Mr Bella’s views are in contrast to those of the Environmental Defenders Office of North Queensland (EDONQ), which argued the laws would have “far reaching consequences” and should be rejected in its entirety.

“The Bill is a direct response to the protests by animal activist and environmental movements on issues that are highly political in nature,” EDONQ principal solicitor Kirstiana Ward said.

“The Bill limits the public right to protest, not to protect the interests of the people of Queensland, but the economic interests of private enterprise.

“The profits of corporations is not a sufficient justification for restricting peaceful protest by the public.”

The LNP’S Bill, introduced by Burdekin MP Dale Last, is proposing the addition of three offences to the criminal code.

Protesters entering a farm or factory, with the intent of causing economic loss, could be locked up for three years and slapped with a $13,000 fine.

Trespassers who commit an additional offence, such as wilful damage, face 10 years’ imprisonment and a $391,000 fine.

The penalties are similar for the charge that targets organisers of the protests.

The Queensland Law Society has asked the State Government to consider on-the-spot fines similar to those introduced under the Biosecurity Act earlier this year.

A public hearing into the laws will be held in Brisbane today and a regional hearing, location undecided, is due to be held on September 10.