Opinion: Time illegal protesters paid their way

Originally published in The Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2024

Next time you see a protest in the news, don’t be surprised if you feel a burning sensation in your hip pocket. That’s because most protests end up costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and often much more. This has to change.

The freedom to protest is important in a healthy democracy. Everyone should have the right to protest, as long as it’s done safely, and within the law.

However, taxpayers should not have to cover all the costs, particularly when laws are deliberately broken.

In most cases, when Police and Emergency Services personnel have to be deployed to end an illegal protest, taxpayers pay the costs. When repair works are needed on damaged public infrastructure as a result of illegal protests, taxpayers also pay the cost.

Taxpayers also pay when illegal protests block roads and rail lines, requiring extra buses or other options just to help people get to where they’re going. Taxpayers also pay for the court system to process illegal protestors charged after any arrests.

These are taxpayer funds that are surely better spent on things like roads, hospitals, and schools.

Right now, there’s almost no way to recover any of these costs. Illegal protesters are not being held to account. Sure, they may face a ‘good behaviour’ order and a small fine. However, most can simply walk away from the huge public bill their illegal actions incur at the taxpayers expense.

For example, earlier this year extreme activist group ‘Blockade Australia’ conducted rolling illegal protests over ten days, involving trespassing on the Hunter Valley rail corridor and blocking trains.

Taxpayers were forced to pay for Police to keep the rail line open, and for Emergency Services personnel to safely remove the protesters and dismantle their illegal barricades.

Taxpayers also had to pay the costs of the buses needed to replace more than 800 cancelled passenger trains.  This was on top of the significant disruption the protests caused to hundreds of Hunter locals trying to go about their daily lives.

Our taxes paid for these protesters to indulge in their illegal activities. And while many arrests were made, and some went before the courts, most got off with little more than a slap on the wrist.

Next month, another radical protest group called ‘Rising Tide’ is planning another week of protest action, including a two day blockade of the Port of Newcastle.

‘Rising Tide’ organisers are regularly involved in illegal protests, including in September they blocked and boarded a coal train. Taxpayers had to cover the costs of removing them, arresting them, charging them, and processing them through the courts.

This time, Rising Tide is urging thousands of people to climb into flimsy kayaks and other small boats to disrupt operations at the Port for at least 50 hours, including at night.

Alarmingly, children are being encouraged to attend, with the event marketed as a ‘family fun day’.

Last year, the group was granted a permit to block the Port for 24 hours. Few were surprised when they breached this condition, refusing to stop when their time was up. Police were forced onto the water to arrest more than one hundred illegal protesters, at significant taxpayer cost.

Rising Tide will almost certainly seek another protest permit this year. It’s also almost certain the rules will be breached again. The extremists will proceed with their dangerous actions regardless. People will be put at risk. Significant police and emergency services personnel and resources will again be required. And taxpayers will again have to pay for it all.

This is ridiculous. We need a ‘user pays’ system that forces protesters to pay at least some of the costs any of their illegal actions incur. There should be an effective financial deterrent in place to convince at least some people not to indulge in illegal and unsafe protest activities.

It’s not just taxpayers that bear these costs. Concerns over disruptions at the Port have already forced a passenger cruise ship to cancel a Port visit, with resulting loss of trade for local retail and hospitality businesses. Who will reimburse these businesses for their losses?

When will it end?  If the courts won’t deliver sufficient penalties, a legislative framework is needed to enable costs incurred by illegal protest actions to be recovered.

Taxpayers should not be paying for protesters to break the law. Those who choose to do so, put people at risk, and incur costs on others should have to pay.