Perth Magistrate calls Violet Coco “noble and commendable” and issues $200 fine for spray painting Woodside logos on Perth Police Centre in protest at ongoing WA police crackdown

Violet Coco and Joana Partyka.

A Perth magistrate has this morning "commended" and "encouraged" the actions of environmental activist Violet Coco for spray painting the Perth Police Station with the Woodside logo four times in yellow paint in protest at the escalating police crackdown on climate protest in Western Australia.

At Perth Magistrates Court this morning, Coco pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage and was fined $200 for her action taken yesterday in solidarity with Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners who have been subject to recent police overreach including house raids, data seizure and excessive charges in response to their campaign targeting Woodside's massive Burrup Hub mega-project.

In sentencing Ms Coco, Magistrate Walton described as “noble and commendable” her actions yesterday, in which Ms Coco used a stencil and yellow paint to spray the Woodside logo multiple times on the glass frontage to the Perth Police Station complex,.

“People have strong personal views,” Magistrate Walton remarked.

“It’s a fundamental tenet of western democracy…a functioning democracy. It should be supported. You don’t have to go too far abroad to see the restrictions on personal freedoms and activism.”

“In a lot of regards you should be commended, however you’ve breached a law. You went too far on this occasion. 

“I suspect you’re a highly intelligent and good intentioned person.”

“I encourage you to do it. You should be encouraged to do it in a lawful manner. It should be something held to be very precious to all of us. In this case you simply went too far.”

Following her arrest, Ms CoCo was refused bail by police and detained overnight.

Leaving Perth Magistrates Court after sentencing this morning, Ms Coco said:

“The police denied me bail so we’re seeing again the police enacting their own justice without the support of the judiciary.”

"I am a survivor of the authoritarian crackdown on environmental protest on the east coast and I have come over to WA to sound the alarm and stand in solidarity with campaigners facing the same police state repression here."

"Woodside love to slap their logo on the prized cultural institutions in this state at the same time they spray their toxic emissions all over sacred First Nations rock art and our childrens' future. But the biggest sponsorship deal in this state is between Woodside and the WA government, who use the WA police as Woodside's personal protection service."

"Woodside's Burrup Hub is the biggest fossil project in Australia, pumping 6 billion tons of CO2 while the same oppression of peaceful protestors we have seen in NSW is now happening in WA."

"Last weekend, two people were held in this building on absurd charges and police then opposed bail, trying to keep them locked up for calling out Woodside's Burrup Hub. I'm here today to call out the WA government for running a protection racket for fossil fuel interests and to stand in solidarity with peaceful protestors repressed in an ongoing crackdown to try to shut them up."

Last Friday, two Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners were charged with Aggravated Burglary with Intent to Commit Assault after taking harmless stench gas and smoke flares to the Woodside AGM in Perth. Their homes were subsequently raided with phones and laptops seized, while electronic devices belonging to two journalists who were not charged in relation to any offence were also seized by WA police.

In March this year, Ms CoCo had a 15-month prison sentence thrown out on appeal when it emerged police had made false assertions that initially led to her being jailed under aggressive new anti-protest legislation in New South Wales that has included pre-emptive police raids on peaceful protestors.

The Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is known as Murujuga to traditional custodians, a deeply sacred place that contains the largest, oldest collection of Aboriginal rock art in the world. This priceless cultural treasure is currently nominated for UNESCO world heritage listing, but the sacred songlines and stories contained in these carvings are being damaged by emissions from the Burrup Hub and face total destruction within decades. Woodside has previously been responsible for the destruction of around 5,000 sacred rock art sites in the construction of earlier parts of its Burrup Hub mega-project, including the Karratha Gas Plant and Pluto LNG processing facility.

Woodside's Burrup Hub is the biggest new fossil fuel project in Australia. It consists of the Scarborough and Browse Basin gas fields, the Pluto Project processing plant, and other linked liquified natural gas (LNG) andfertiliser plants on the Burrup Peninsula in WA’s remote north-west Pilbara region. The Burrup Hub is projected to produce more than 6 billion tons of CO2 by 2070, making it four times larger than the Adani coal mine andone of the biggest carbon bombs in the world.