The Greens will introduce a federal right-to-protest bill that will seek to overrule state-based anti-protest legislation in Tasmania and other states.
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Greens Senator David Shoebridge joined Bob Brown, Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor and other environmentalists in Hobart on Tuesday to announce plans for the bill, which would utilise the same external affairs powers of the constitution that enabled the Federal Government to shut down construction of a dam on the Franklin River forty years ago.
Sen. Shoebridge said he had not yet gauged the level of support from the Labor government, and the Albanese government has not indicated support for such a bill to date.
"What we have seen in Tasmania over the last eight years are concerted efforts to put in jail forest activists," Senator Shoebridge said.
Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said in some cases, the "draconian" Tasmanian laws introduced this year imposed harsher penalties on protesters than crimes such as home invasions.
"We know there were sequential attempts by the Liberal government to enact the most draconian anti-protest laws .. whether it's against industrial mining, logging or fish farming, you've got a corporatist Liberal government that would rather prioritise the well being of their donors than children," she said.
The plan for a federal bill came after Tasmania passed its latest anti-protest laws earlier this year.
The government at the time said the laws were necessary to keep workers safe and avoid workplace disruptions by protesters.
"The Tasmanian Government respects the right to protest and every Tasmanian's right to free speech, but it is also important this is not at the expense of the right to lawfully work or run a business," Minister for State Development, Construction and Housing, Guy Barnett, said at the time.
But environmental activists said the laws were disproportionate and were an attack on the rights of protest and free speech.
Mining and forestry operations have been the focus of numerous protest actions in the past few years, including at the MMG mine near Rosebery, where the Chinese-owned company wants to construct a tailings dam; and Venture Minerals' tin and tungsten tenement area near Tullah.
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