AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
FRA
GER
ESP
ITA
NLD
PRT
SWE
GRC
IND
POL
BRA
ZAF
RUS
CHN
UAE
A climate change activist who suspended himself above a train track at a Sydney port has avoided jail despite his "irresponsible, unlawful" protest.
On Thursday, Wenzel Valentine Auch was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order and fined $1350 for his role in protests planned by Blockade Australia in March this year.
Auch hung himself above a rail line near Port Botany along with fellow protester Emma Dorge with the pair anchoring themselves to a bridge and livestreaming their actions.
Magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis found the 30-year-old endangered himself and police officers who had to rescue him by abseiling down from the bridge before he refused their directions to get him to safety.
The Lismore man attempted to halt his extraction by unsuccessfully supergluing his hand to a pole.
"The conduct here in my view was irresponsible, unlawful and exposed the emergency service workers who were attempting to intervene to assist him to extreme harm," Mr Tsavdaridis said in Downing Centre Local Court.
In ordering the CCO, the magistrate noted another climate protester Violet Coco had recently been given maximum jail time of 15 months, but said it was not the court's role to compare cases when determining Auch's sentence.
Auch was convicted after pleading guilty to three charges of refusing to comply with a police direction, risking another person's safety by abseiling from the bridge, and refusing to inform police of the driver of his car which was used in earlier Blockade Australia activity.
Mr Tsavdaridis supported the right to political protest but said illegal activity was not a "victimless crime" and actually harmed the community.
"'Political protests, including those relating to the preservation of climate are part of the hallmarks of a democratic society. There is no reason though why those protests can't be conducted in a lawful matter, albeit in a vociferous way," he said.
