Pepper spray stuns protesters
Saturday, 21 July, 2007
by Fiona Ross-Edwards
Post News
Heavy Friday afternoon traffic was disrupted as police with riot gear rushed to Ms Bishop's office on Nicholson Road.
The protesters said their spontaneous demonstration had been handled calmly by federal Science Minister Julie Bishop, who spoke to them outside her office after she parked her car.
They said that after that discussion, Ms Bishop entered the building on Rokeby Road and they had walked around the corner and entered the foyer of the former Mediterranean restaurant building to deliver a letter to her.
Their spokeswoman, Mitch, said: "The protesters were not violent - they were dancing, singing and beating drums. There was laughter and happiness."
Within 30 minutes, five people were arrested and charged, and one policeman had a cut head after being hit by a thrown brick.
An ambulance officer treats a woman for pepper spray in the face.
Ms Bishop, who is responsible for the Australian Nuclear Scientific and Technology Organisation, said the protest stemmed from a dispute between indigenous groups in the Northern Territory.
She said: "One group, through the Northern Land Council, has voluntarily offered up to the Commonwealth a site to build the radioactive waste management facility on their land (Muckaty Station).
"This is to take radioactive waste from Lucas Heights (near Sydney), where we make radioactive pharmaceuticals for cancer treatment.
"The Commonwealth is going to build a safe and secure site. This indigenous group has offered up their land, and that's currently under consideration.
Body language delivers the message.
"There's another indigenous group, supported by a very large majority of non-indigenous protesters, who are against them doing that."
Ms Bishop said she spoke to the protesters, who were in the Australian Student Environment Network, and then went into her office.
She said: "They stormed into the foyer. I was concerned about the other occupants of the building, so we did ring the police.
"I respect people's right to protest, but they shouldn't resort to violence and threats and intimidation to make their point."
Ms Bishop said her role was to look at the nominated sites and identify which would comply with the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act.
A rare sight in Subiaco - riot shields.
The protest, which involved more than 60 police and 40 protesters, was spontaneous, according to the protesters.
Mitch, an Aboriginal whose community lives near one of four proposed radioactive waste sites in the Northern Territory, said the group of about 40 was from the Students for Sustainability 2007 conference being held at Murdoch University.
She said they had been travelling to the city when she decided to deliver a letter to the federal Science Minister inviting her to visit the proposed sites.
Mitch said this week: "It was not a planned protest. We just took the opportunity while we were in the area to give her the request."
She said the proposed sites included Mt Everard, Harts Range/Alcoota, Fishers Ridge and Muckaty Station, all of which were surrounded by indigenous communities, cattle stations and tourist destinations.
"This would kill them. It would be 'out of sight and out of mind'," she said.
Students from around Australia deliver their message to Federal Science Minister Julie Bishop.
Mitch said the group had seen Ms Bishop's car pulling into the carport on the Nicholson Road side of her office and went to greet her.
She said: "We spoke to her for a good while. We asked her if she could come to the proposed sites.
"But she wouldn't give us a date or anything.
"We questioned her on words she said eight months ago that the sites were nowhere near civilisation.
"She said nothing, she just said she would take environmental studies into consideration.
"We also asked her if she could pinpoint sites on the map and she couldn't.
A protester is escorted into a van after being arrested.
"We have made two trips to Canberra to see her, but this is the first opportunity we've had to give her the letter."
She said that when police arrived, they agreed to take the letter to Ms Bishop.
"The first two coppers on the scene were amazing and negotiated," Mitch said.
"The second car showed up and they started beating people and pushing people over. It was astonishing. It was horrible.
"And when the protesters started leaving, they were hitting them as they were going out the doorway.
"There was no intent to be violent. One protester did throw a rock, but she was being hit with a baton."
Police with batons ready tell protesters not to cross the road.
Another protester, who identified herself as Rachel (24), a pink-haired politics and economics student at Melbourne University, said students went into the foyer at Ms Bishop's office.
"Someone was playing the drums and we were dancing.
"Then some jumped up on the counter and were dancing for four or five minutes and we were chanting: 'NT no nukes, NT nuclear free'.
"Two cops went around the building.
"All of a sudden one started yelling: 'Everyone get out!'
"One grabbed me by the arm and bundled me out.
"They were throwing people. It was physical.
"At that point I left and stood outside.
"Mitch was asking everyone to leave.
"Everyone was trying to take photos and videos and the police confiscated their cameras and phones.
"I saw it from the other side of the road - they were putting people into vans."
A woman said she had her three-year-old son in her arms when police got out their batons.
"I put my arms around him to protect him and I got out of there very quickly and took him to a safe house," she said.
She said there were four children under eight years old with the protest group.
A woman swung her arm through 180 degrees to demonstrate how, she said, a policeman pepper-sprayed protesters.
"It really burns and makes it hard to breathe," she said after being treated by St John's Ambulance staff on a bench in the grounds of The Palms.
"It sent me into a sort of fit, a bit of a panic attack."
The woman said she was 20 years old and not a student.
Speaking with an American accent, she said she did not want to say where she lived.
"I have lived here and in other cities," she said.
"We were in the courtyard. Some people were pushed down to the ground.
"I was saying: 'What is going on?'
"We had no warning before they pulled out their batons and pepper spray."
She said the ambulance crew gave her a saline solution to put in her eyes.
She said she was told the pepper spray would take about an hour or more to wear off.
"They said it is different from person to person," she said.
Sgt Peter Gilmour, of Subiaco police, said two local officers were the first to arrive.
"Julie Bishop and her staff had locked themselves in her office. The officer attended to make sure she was okay, and then went downstairs to talk to the protesters," he said.
"Other officers turned up and a number were assaulted. It continued from there with the use of force."
Sgt Gilmour said the protesters instigated the violence.
"Some of them played up when they were arrested," he said.
He said he was unaware of police smashing or confiscating cameras.
Shenton Park protester Olly Watkins said: "The cops immediately started smashing everyone.
"I saw one cop grab a girl by her dreadlocks, then they started smashing our cameras."
Melbourne student Lisa Richards said police confiscated cameras and used capsicum spray on protesters.
"It wasn't an act of self-defence, it was uncalled-for," she said.
About 60 officers from Subiaco, Wembley, the regional operations group and the traffic group joined in.
Three ambulances attended and treated protesters for exposure to capsicum spray, and a police officer who was hit by a brick.
Five protesters were arrested and charged with offences including trespass, assaulting a public officer, obstructing a public officer and damage.
WA Greens senator, Rachel Siewert, said she had asked for the resignation of one of her staff who was arrested at the protest.
"I was distraught to learn that a member of my staff was involved in the protest. The Greens do not condone violence in any form," she said.
A spokesman for Ms Siewert said the staff member, who was on leave, had been "spoken to at length".
"Irrespective of whether or not they are convicted of the charges, it is inappropriate for a member of staff to be involved in a protest in the office of a member of parliament," he said.
"We know that the staff member concerned has a strong commitment to non-violence and believe that she was seeking to be a voice of reason when things turned ugly, and have reason to believe that the response of the police was disproportionate - but this does not change the fact that the staff member should not be involved in the first place."
He said Ms Siewert believed she did not have any alternative.
There were 19 police cars and vans at the scene.
A four-wheel-drive with a blue light on the roof was parked across the footpath on Nicholson Road.
There were three police motorbikes and three ambulances.
When police were leaving the scene, one car that had been parked with its two-tone roof lights flashing had to be jump started by officers in a police van.