More than 130 protesters have been arrested after allegedly refusing to move away from a shipping channel leading into the world's largest coal port, in Newcastle. The demonstrations are aimed at ensuring the government does more for the climate crisis.
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00:00This anti-fossil fuels demonstration really escalated when a number of people tried to
00:08use their kayaks to actually enter the shipping channel and block a ship from leaving the
00:14port of Newcastle.
00:15Prior to that, many of the protesters had been actually sticking to the water's edge
00:20in their kayaks and their floats, and that's because there was quite a presence of police
00:25out on the water and their boats were preventing people from actually entering the shipping
00:31channel and blocking those ships.
00:34But this morning we saw a number of protesters in their kayaks actually go past the police
00:40boats and really attempt to get into that shipping channel, and many of them were then
00:46put onto the police boats and taken back to shore.
00:50On Saturday, yesterday, we saw three people arrested for attempting to do the same thing.
00:56They were also charged, and there were also a number of people on Saturday that were escorted
01:01by police back to land, but they were able to walk free.
01:05Among them was local health professional Peter Schofield.
01:10The government and its handling of the climate crisis is, in my view, negligent.
01:18There are things that could be done to hasten our exiting from coal as a fuel.
01:26It's clear that the economic arguments don't really carry much strength.
01:32The reason the protesters are targeting this area is because Newcastle is home to the world's
01:38largest coal port.
01:40Last year alone, more than 144 million tonnes of coal was sent offshore from this region,
01:47so many of these protesters are hoping that governments will hear their messages.
01:52They're calling for more urgent action on climate change.
01:56They will continue to protest and gather here in Newcastle today before heading to Canberra
02:03to do more demonstrations throughout the week.