Violet Coco graffitis Perth Police Centre with Woodside logo in solidarity with Disrupt Burrup Hub campaigners targeted in escalating WA police crackdown
Environmental activist Violet CoCo, the first person jailed under repressive new police powers legislation in New South Wales, has this morning sprayed the Woodside logo in yellow paint on the front of the Perth Police Centre in protest at the escalating police crackdown on climate protest in Western Australia.
Ms CoCo took this action in solidarity with the Disrupt Burrup Hub campaign 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.
At 10am AWST on Wednesday morning in central Perth, 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 before gluing herself to the police station glass beside the graffiti.
Ms CoCo then explained to waiting cameras that the repression of peaceful protest is now rapidly escalating in WA in the same way she has repeatedly experienced first-hand on the east coast.
Ms CoCo further explained that the yellow paint used by Disrupt Burrup Hub symbolises the toxic emissions that Woodside's Burrup Hub is spraying all over sacred Murujuga culture and our climate while WA authorities enable Woodside's destruction via generous tax benefits and police protection in exchange for sizable donations.
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.
Violet CoCo, an environmental and justice activist from New South Wales whose grandfather was a West Australian surf lifesaver, said outside the Perth Police Centre this morning:
"I want to start by acknowledging that I am here on Noongar boodjar, stolen land that was never ceded, and support the campaign to ban all white juries."
"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."
