Police ordered to pay $73,000 costs after Rising Tide test case charges dismissed

newy.com.au – Senior climate protest lawyer Dr Josh Pallas has called on NSW Police to drop more than 100 charges laid against Rising Tide protesters arrested during the 2024 People’s Blockade at the Port of Newcastle, after the Local Court ordered police to pay $73,000 in legal costs to the first four defendants.

The call from the Climate Defenders Australia legal director follows last October’s dismissal of the group’s “test case” charges under section 214A of the Crimes Act, an offence introduced in 2022 covering damage or serious disruption to a major facility.

A costs hearing for the four defendants was heard in Newcastle on Friday, with Rising Tide and Climate Defenders Australia saying the court ordered police to pay $73,000 to the legal team that ran the dismissal application.

The court last October found there was not enough evidence to support the prosecution claim that the four protesters caused a serious disruption to the port when they paddled out during the 2024 protest, which Rising Tide bills as the “People’s Blockade of the World’s Largest Coal Port”. The section 214A charge, which carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment or a $22,000 fine, was dismissed.

Rising Tide said more than 258 protesters from the 2024 and 2025 People’s Blockade actions still face the same section 214A charge, with another round of test cases listed for June and the remaining matters scheduled for October to November. Climate Defenders Australia said it represents 111 people charged under section 214A following the 2024 blockade.

The four original defendants — Roisin McSweeney, Andrew George, Noah Bruce-Allen and Joanna Gardner — were also sentenced on a remaining Marine Safety Act charge of “unreasonable interference by operation or use of vessel” after each pleaded guilty, according to the organisations. Two defendants with prior convictions were fined $250 and $500, while two with no prior convictions had no conviction recorded.

Pallas said: “A $73,000 cost order is rare in the Local Court and indicative of a particularly unjust prosecution,” adding, “We call on the Police Commissioner to put an end to this by withdrawing all ongoing charges against our clients.”

Rising Tide spokesperson Naomi Hodgson said: “This win for the legal team is also a win for everyday people standing up to defend our kids’ future and protect the right to protest,” and described the prosecutions as “a profligate waste of time and public resources”. “History will judge the real criminals to be the executives of the fossil fuel companies driving catastrophic climate change, not the peaceful protestors calling for a safe future,” she said.

Further test cases and remaining prosecutions arising from the 2024 and 2025 blockades are due back before the courts later this year.