Australian Politics: Climate Activist Detained After Crashing Question Time of New South Wales’ Parliament – Here’s What Happened

Australian Politics: Recently, an a protester from the climate change group Rising Tide interrupted a session of the New South Wales Parliament in Australia. Multiple protesters showed up to demonstrate against the approval of the extension of the Hunter Valley Operations mine. But one of them climbed over the public gallery barrier to throw documents and shouted abusive language at the parliamentarians. No police action will be taken against the man.

Australian Politics: What Happened Inside the NSW Parliament? 

The disruption took place at approximately 12:35 p.m. local time, when protester Andrew Sneddon leapt over a barrier from the public gallery down onto the floor of the Legislative Assembly. Eight activists from Rising Tide took part in the protest, tossing pages of government and academic climate reports into the chamber. Among the documents was a report from the state’s Net Zero Commission about coal-mining emissions and how mine expansions could affect NSW emissions-reduction targets.

Parliamentary proceedings were halted for several minutes while MPs and staff reacted. Independent MP Michael Regan and Labour MP David Saliba helped in restraining the activist, and Speaker Greg Piper cut the parliamentary livestream during the incident.

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