Two climate activists have been sentenced to 21 days jail for blocking peak-hour traffic on Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge on Tuesday, causing major delays.
Extinction Rebellion activists Deanna “Violet” Coco, 33, and Bradley Homewood, 51, pleaded guilty to two counts of public nuisance by obstructing motorists and obstructing police and emergency service workers during morning rush-hour.
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Both were sentenced to 21 days imprisonment.
The pair, along with another activist, Joseph Zammit, 68, parked a truck across three of the five inbound lanes of traffic on the West Gate Bridge at 7:45am on Tuesday and waved banners that read “declare a climate emergency” and “climate breakdown has begun” for two hours.
The blockade caused traffic to back up for about 30km. Victoria Police used a cherrypicker to arrest and remove the activists at 9.45am after they ignored orders to leave.
“The ramifications of their actions caused massive catastrophic inconvenience and delay to thousands of members of the public,” a police prosecutor told the court.
Zammit also pleaded guilty to the same charges but was released on bail on the condition that he not attend any unlawful protests and break all association with Coco and Homewood. He is due back in court in April.
Zammit defended Extinction Rebellion in court on Wednesday as a “service to the community” and said, “What [commuters] suffered today is nothing compared to what’s going to happen in the future”.
But Magistrate Andrew McKenna said, “Whether someone has a worthy cause or not, you’ve got to work within the law to promote it and if you don’t, you’re liable to be punished.”
He also singled out Violet Coco, who was in the news in 2022 when she was arrested by NSW Police for similarly blocking traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. For that direct action, she was jailed for 13 days after successfully appealing her original 15-month prison sentence.
“She basically put her own interests and her own cause ahead of the interests of others in the community – many more people than just she and two others,” McKenna said.
Coco was the first person to be jailed under NSW’s controversial anti-protest laws passed that year that threatened two-year prison sentences for protestors who blocked major accessways or disrupted trade and commerce. Those laws have since been ruled unconstitutional.
Greens MP Ellen Sandell said she thought the activists were brave and that, while she had sympathy for those delayed, climate change was already causing disruptions.
“We’ve already had literally thousands of people evacuated from their homes because of fires this year. We’ve had thousands and thousands of people without power because of storms exacerbated by climate change. These are the kinds of disruptions that we’re seeing already because of climate change. And I think it’s courageous for people to stand up and say, ‘no, politicians need to do better’,” she told reporters.
Homewood, the other activist sentenced and a truck driver from Melbourne’s western suburbs, said he participated because he felt he had no choice left.
“I’ve tried all the conventional methods of campaigning and nothing has worked,” he said in court. “We view what we do as a proportional response to the inaction from governments of the world.”
Aleksandra Bliszczyk is the Deputy Editor of VICE Australia. Follow her on Instagram.
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