Responding to the Supreme Court’s decision to grant Adani a temporary injunction to silence anti-Adani activist Ben Pennings, Senator for Queensland and Greens spokesperson for mining and resources, Senator Larissa Waters, said:
“I’m disgusted that a coal billionaire has used the courts to silence anti-Adani climate activist, Galilee Blockade leader Ben Pennings.
“We live in a broken democracy where big companies will do whatever they can to silence opposition.
“The fact that Adani, a multinational coal mining giant convicted of breaching multiple environmental conditions, has thrown its resources into shutting up a local protestor just shows how terrified they are of public scrutiny.
“Our civil laws are designed to protect against harm, so it’s outrageous to see them used to attack those trying to bring the harm being done by Adani to light.
“Adani has already bankrupted a traditional owner who dared to stand against them, now they’re trying to do the same to Ben Pennings.
“This is the same multi-national coal company that can’t get insurance, investors or even a railway because no-one wants anything to do with their climate-wrecking project.
“Adani are having to self-fund, self-insure and now self-haul, because the market can see there is no demand or social licence for new coal.
“Australians want their climate and water protected from being pillaged by multi-national coal companies for private profit.
“The big parties may be dancing to the tune of their coal donors, but the Greens will continue to stand with communities across the country standing against Adani’s destructive path.”
