New laws against protestors being developed : Melbourne Indymedia

Law against protestors is being proposed

In an interview this week, Peter McGauran, the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, said that he is developing new legislation aimed at protests involving his portfolio. With specific reference to the recent protests about live sheep exports, he said that the legislation would be framed around the ‘intent to cause economic loss’. Protests and protestors that are shown to cause an economic loss to an industry would be held ‘criminally and civilly liable’ for such losses. He expressed the hope that this model legislation would be incorporated into the laws of State jurisdictions, but did not mention the possibility of the proposal becoming Federal law.

Under laws like this, environmental and animal rights protestors could be held responsible for the ‘economic harm’ they cause to businesses such as logging, mining, fishing, and live sheep exports when they run protest actions. The current proceedings against the ‘Gunns20’ involve claims of economic harm by protestors.

His comments mirror recent moves in the USA, where right-wing think-tanks have been developing similar legislation designed to criminalise and hold protestors liable for protests that delay, reduce, or stop the production of a business and by doing so, reduce the profits of that business.

Legislation such as the Hon. McGauran has foreshadowed relate to the legal recognition of a corporation as a ‘legal person’, the same as you or I. A person can be physically assaulted and, by extending this view, a corporation can be harmed (assaulted) by actions, like a protest, that affect its profit.

Despite support from Republican senators in the USA, the ‘economic harm’ legislation pushed by the right-wing in that country hasn’t got up yet. It remains to be seen if the law that the Hon. McGauran is developing will be accepted by State Governments or by the Liberal-dominated Parliament.

If legislation that makes profit loss for industry from protests a criminal and civil wrong, protests that are aimed at stopping environmental damage (such as at Eden or the Weld) or cruelty (such as live sheep transport or industrial farming), or both (such as piggeries), will become more risky.