Five climate activists have been charged after a protest blockade in which they claim they glued themselves to the building entrance of Australia's peak national body representing oil and gas.
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"We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing," John Max Wurcker, one of the alleged Canberran offenders, said in a media release.
Wurcker, alongside Nicholas Orde Jamison Abel, Katherine Kelly, Anna Molan and Catherine Anne Adams, faced the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday, charged with unreasonable obstruction.
The alleged incident occurred on Marcus Clarke Street in Civic on February 27, the anniversary of the 2022 Lismore floods in northern NSW.
Extinction Rebellion ACT said the men and women were attempting to block the entrance to the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, "the mouthpiece of the gas and oil industry".
They are described as "grandparents, a climate research scientist and concerned Canberra citizens".
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The climate activists were joined by two dozen others out front of court on Wednesday, holding signs that read "fossil fuels cost the earth" and "have we forgotten the 2019 bushfires".
They were legally represented by former ACT attorney-general Bernard Collaery.
All five alleged offenders did not enter pleas on Wednesday and are set to return to court on April 19.
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Tim Piccione
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au.
