About 600 Rising Tide activists paddled into the Port of Newcastle on Saturday, unfurling a sign that read "coal exports = climate chaos", after overcoming attempts by police and the New South Wales government to stop the event. Hundreds more protested onshore during the Paddle for the Planet action, which demanded funding for coal workers to transition to new jobs and a safe and livable climate.
Supreme court victory allows protest
The protest went ahead after an 11th-hour victory in the supreme court. No arrests were made during Saturday's action. The event followed an uncertain week, after the Newcastle city council, in consultation with premier Chris Minns and police minister Yasmin Catley, banned Rising Tide and any affiliated groups from using council-owned land to undertake protests.
The protest did not use council-owned land, so was not subject to the ban. The group applied to police for a form 1, a permit-style system that protest organisers can submit to prevent participants from being charged under the summary offences act. The group submitted the form 1 two months in advance, despite only being required to give seven days notice. Police took six weeks to notify organisers they would not agree, leading to a supreme court hearing this week.
Court rules in favour of protesters
On Friday, justice Edward Muston sided with the protesters. He acknowledged the safety risks, but said Rising Tide had mitigated those risks. "I have accepted that the possibility of participants engaging in actions which lie outside the parameters of the proposed public assembly cannot be excluded," Muston said. "However, I was not satisfied that the making of orders of the type sought by the commissioner [of police] would reduce in any material way the likelihood of such actions occurring."
"Ultimately, I found that in balancing the considerations, the public interest in the facilitation of political expression through assembly outweighs the legitimate concerns which have been expressed by the [police] commissioner."
Protest demands and context
Rising Tide's spokesperson, Joe Hallenstein, said the protest aimed to "call out" the lack of climate action by Anthony Albanese and Chris Minns. "As hypocritical Albo parades around Cop31 urging world leaders to take stronger climate action, back home he and his Labor counterpart premier Chris Minns are approving new coal and gas projects and attempting to silence us."
The event draws attention to demands for the cancellation of all new fossil fuel projects, an end to coal exports from Newcastle by 2030, and taxing fossil fuel profits at 78% to fund community and industrial transitions. The group will hold its annual six-day festival in Newcastle in February, and it remains to be seen how the ban on council land will impact its activities.
During the 2024 protest, the Minns government attempted to stop the event by establishing a maritime exclusion zone around the port, but the supreme court ruled the zone invalid. During that event, 173 protesters were charged, but charges against 125 were withdrawn in August. At the 2025 blockade, police arrested and charged 129 protesters who entered the water, preventing three coal ships from entering the port; they remain before the courts.
