A long-awaited trial has ended for nine people who took peaceful action at Stockton mine over Easter. The nine appeared in the Westport District Court today, facing charges for blocking a coal mine. The judge has reserved their decision until 2026.

Climate Liberation Aotearoa’s Annabel Hankin (20yo) was one of the nine in court. She said the action was taken because “the Fast Track Act slammed the door on democracy. When the government removes al other legal avenues, we had to step up to defend what’s irreplaceable. We will do everything we can to stop a 40-million-year-old ecosystem being traded away like a business asset. We stood where the law should have stood.”

“The real criminals are the corporations like Bathurst Resources, whose dodgy coal plans are facilitated by the fast-track act, being rammed through parliament by their mate Shane Jones. Floods, droughts, fires — we’re watching lives and livelihoods wash away. The coal industry helped create this crisis and has spent decades dodging responsibility.” Hankin added.

Melissa Andrews, who supported the defendants at the trial, said, “These are reasonable people facing an unreasonable mine.”

Andrews emphasised that while nine appeared in court, “thousands are behind them — people who camped through storms, organised at ANZ branches, signed petitions, and are pushing to make Denniston a national reserve.”

Adam Currie, one of the nine defendants, said “When a company with a history of breaches is allowed to fast-track a project that threatens kiwi habitat, three million tonnes of carbon, and a century of taxpayer clean-up costs, it’s clear Bathurst is the ones in the wrong here. We simply stood between bulldozers and biodiversity.”

“Just last year, taxpayers spent more money cleaning up one coal mine than the Government collected in coal royalties nationwide. Bathurst extracts the coal — and the public extracts the consequences,” added Currie.

350 Aotearoa Co-Director Alva Feldmeier echoed that sentiment: “Bathurst wants to turn a living plateau into a short-term profit machine for offshore shareholders. Communities want a safe climate and stable jobs. Those are two very different futures.”

“The right to peaceful protest is essential for a healthy democracy, and indeed, virtually every positive change we’ve seen in society over the last century has been driven by some form of peaceful protest before it became accepted and then valued by society. People are more concerned than ever about the climate crisis, and with the Government’s apparent failure to grasp the scale of the threat, there has never been a greater need for peaceful protest and climate activism.”

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