Mine protester avoids suspended sentence

A TASMANIAN GP and environmentalist who locked herself on to a crane in protest at a mine site last month near Tullah has avoided a suspended jail sentence.

Lisa Searle, who works with refugees and Médecins Sans Frontières, refused to leave the Venture Minerals Riley Creek mine site when asked by the mine manager and police during a Bob Brown Foundation protest on March 22.

On Monday, she was sentenced in the Hobart Magistrates Court to an 18-month community correction order entailing 49 hours of community service after pleading guilty to trespass and resisting a police officer.

The doctor avoided a suspended prison term, which Magistrate Jackie Hartnett last week flagged she would consider, given previous convictions and fines had failed to deter her.

Lawyer Richard Griggs told Ms Hartnett the operations at the mine were able to continue while Searle

was locked on the crane, and noted the protest was a peaceful act of civil disobedience, not a violent one, which he argued should lessen her moral culpability.

The court previously heard the protest began about 4.40am, causing

delays at the site and affecting police resourcing across the West Coast, with three search and rescue officers diverted from Burnie to remove Searle from the crane.

Ms Hartnett acknowledged the protest was non-violent and did not greatly disrupt the mine operations, but said the action was “deliberate and planned with an implement that could not be easily removed by police”.

“It was observed that you were locked on to a rod by a dog clip that you could have undone at any time, but you chose not to,” she said.

“Your offences had a number of consequences to police on duty that day. They were drawn away, people had to come with specialised equipment.

“Of course there is the political and democratic right to protest, but that is not unfettered … it does not allow for unlawful acts such as trespass.”

Outside court, Bob Brown said the sentence would not deter Dr Searle and other activists from continuing to fight for the forest, noting she “does more hours of community service than anyone else I know, as it is”.

“You can’t take the heart out of people who want this planet, future generations and our fellow species to be made safe and secure,” he said.