Key Points
- Ninety-seven-year-old Alan Stuart was arrested for the first time on Sunday for a climate protest.
- He was one of 109 people arrested in Newcastle on the weekend.
- Stuart said it was "his duty" to push action on climate change for younger generations.
Alan Stuart is a 97-year-old church minister and before the weekend had never had any kind of run-in with the police.
On Sunday he was arrested for protesting climate "inaction" in a deliberate act of civil disobedience at the Port of Newcastle,
NSW Police told SBS News at the time of writing they were unable to confirm if he had been charged.
Stuart told SBS News he felt it was his "duty, to stand up and be counted".
"I'm concerned about the climate. We've had a good climate and we're not bequeathing a good one to our progeny," he said.
"I'm doing this for my grandchildren and for future generations because I don't want to leave them with a world full of increasingly severe and frequent national disasters because of climate change."
School students were also at the protest and apprehended on the water.
Anjali Beames, who has been active in the School Strike for Climate movement, was also arrested.
The 17-year-old said the Australian government was "forcing young people like myself to act".
"My future is getting sold by the fossil fuel industry for profit, and I'm not going to sit idly by while that happens, it's the Australian government's failure to act," she said.
"We know that the climate crisis is here and now, and if there's any hope of mitigating the consequences and saving people's lives, we have to stop new fossil fuel projects, and that includes new coal."
17-year-old Anjali Beames was also arrested at the Port of Newcastle. Source: Supplied
Stuart was on a rowboat with other climate activists, when police told them they had stayed past the 4pm cut-off the protest was authorised for.
Police were filmed helping lift Stuart out of the rowboat, in which he was on the water for about two hours.
He said he has been to other climate actions and discussed the possibility he could be arrested.
"I want to assure myself, and I just want to be certain that climate is not going to be altered or worsened because of our inactivity or because of our indifference," he said.
Alan Stuart, 97, is escorted to shore after his arrest during a climate protest at the port of Newcastle. Source: AAP / Alexander Hobbs
"If the government will not take action on climate change, the people will use civil disobedience," she said.
"We wish we did not have to do this but the Albanese government needs to understand we are serious."
A total of 109 people were arrested - 49 men, 60 women and five juvenile demonstrators - police said on Monday.
Two of the men, aged 23 and 65, were remanded to appear before Newcastle Local Court on Monday, while the five minors will be dealt with under the Young Offenders Act.
Members of School Strike 4 Climate and Rising Tide participated in a blockade of the Port of Newcastle. Source: AAP / Supplied /PR Image
They have been charged with operating a vessel so as to interfere with others' use of waters, police said.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said police faced a difficult situation as the protest had taken place annually since 2016.
"I wish those protests didn't take place," he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
"Not only is the extraction and sale and export of minerals in NSW legal, it's our single biggest export.
"If we don't take some of the royalties from coal export, we will not meet our renewable energy targets in NSW.
"We won't even come close."
Minns said he understood people's passion but the revenue was needed to fund the transition to a renewable energy future
Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the port had since resumed normal operations.
Police allege the protesters purposely entered the harbour channel after the 4pm deadline lapsed despite warnings and directions.
Additional reporting by AAP
