My wife Julie and I are about to put our money where our mouth is, again, and head over to the coast to get involved in the protests against logging around Coffs Harbour.
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The logging in question is focussed on state forests that would form part of the Great Koala National Park. They are critical koala habitat.
This raises, in our minds, the whole question of protest and the relative costs and inconvenience associated with it.
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State and territory governments across Australia have been increasing the penalties associated with peaceful protest over the last ten years or more. I wrote about it for another publication back in 2014.
The right to protest is widely acknowledged, but is rarely protected.
Peaceful protest, including non-violent direct action, has been critically important in achieving significant community gains.
Think about the Franklin Dam protests in Tasmania in the 1980s, the Bentley Blockade against Coal Seam Gas in the Northern Rivers in 2014, the North-East Forest Alliance protests in the Washpool and other forests in the 1980s and 90s, the Mary River Dam protests in Queensland and the countless other community-based protests in which ordinary people risked their physical safety and their liberty by standing up against industrial might and the state apparatus.
We would be worse off as a community and a society without the efforts of these brave souls.
More recently we have seen Extinction Rebellion and Blockade Australia cause extreme, if only short lived, disruption in major cities while protesting against inaction on Climate Change.
The reaction of governments in various states and territories has been to dramatically increase penalties for protest rather than actually address the issues being protested about.
They would better serve their constituents by taking realistic action to address the issues being raised.
Governments are more than happy to listen to what I call "the men in shiny suits", the spruikers of projects and possibilities, but they are less ready and willing to listen to local communities.
We need a new way of "doing business" in our system of democracy. That requires effort and commitment from all of us.
We need to develop structures and processes that give local communities power and authority while, at the same time, recognise that there are often broader interests to be acknowledged.
We need to develop effective models of participatory democracy so that we all have a stake in the decisions that affect us.
