Saturday, 14 July, 2007

The West

Police used batons and pepper spray on protesters at Federal Science Minister Julie Bishop’s Subiaco office yesterday, resulting in at least four people being arrested and three hospitalised.

The melee occurred after about 50 demonstrators gathered in the lobby of Ms Bishop’s office to protest against the Minister’s decision to shortlist three Northern Territory sites for a nuclear waste dump.

About 2.45pm two officers entered the building and were greeted by a resounding cheer from the protesters, who were drumming and chanting anti-nuclear slogans. One demonstrator announced that the group was there because “Julie Bishop is here today and she has consistently refused to respond to us. We asked her to come and visit the sites personally”.

Two other officers arrived and ordered the protesters out of the building but about half the group remained.

Protesters said one officer grabbed a woman by the hair before producing his baton and using it on some people in the crowd.

The policemen started to push the protesters from the building and outside the lobby one sprayed a 22-yearold woman in the face with pepper spray.

Toby Lee, whose face and eyes were red and swollen after the incident, said she was picking up her bag in the office garden when pepper sprayed.

“I had left the building and I was directly sprayed into my eyes from about 10cm away,” she said. More than 30 police arrived within a few minutes of the demonstrators being ejected from the office. Outside, police appeared to target protesters carrying cameras and digital video equipment. A middle-aged woman with a camera was pushed to the ground in the scuffle, while a young woman was pinned to the ground on the opposite side of Rokeby Road by an officer and her video camera seized. Several cameras were confiscated by police for evidence.

A police spokeswoman said an officer was struck on the head by a rock and taken to hospital. She said police used batons for their own safety.

Two people were taken to hospital with wounds which protesters said were caused by police batons but police said both had been hit by rocks.

The spokeswoman said four people were arrested and two summonses issued. All four would be charged with disorderly conduct and one with the additional charge of assaulting a police officer.

Protest organiser Natalie Wasley said: “We’re here to support communities targeted for the Federal radioactive waste dump. We came here to deliver a formal request for a meeting on behalf of those communities.”

Ms Bishop said she spoken to the protesters when she arrived at her office. She was unaware batons and pepper spray had been used.