[Greens-Media] MEDIA RELEASE: Crushing police force was planned to end peaceful CSG blockade

[David Shoebridge MLC]

*Crushing police force was planned to end peaceful CSG blockade*



*MEDIA RELEASE*

*23 July 2014*

Documents released to the NSW Greens under freedom of information laws have
revealed that the NSW Police force was intending to deploy up to 800 police
to crush the peaceful community blockade at a coal seam gas drilling site
at Bentley in the State’s north.

Greens MP and Police Spokesperson David Shoebridge said,

“It is quite extraordinary that the NSW Government had advanced plans to
deploy up to 800 police to crush the peaceful blockade at Bentley.

“The coal seam gas industry is so deeply unpopular that it requires
overwhelming police force to be able to operate.  Any accountable
democratic government would take that as a sign the industry has no future.

“When a government plans to deliver this level of force against a law
abiding regional community then it is only one step away from losing its
legitimacy.

“These documents show advanced plans that would see the NSW Police being
used as an exceptionally powerful and expensive private security operation
for a resources company.

“We now also know that long-suffering NSW tax payers were going to be
footing the bill to keep this industry alive, with no plans for Metgasco to
be charged a cent for this enormous police deployment.

“Civil liberties and the right to peaceful protest are essential hallmarks
of our democracy, and the government was planning to deliver these rights a
crushing blow at Bentley,” Mr Shoebridge said.

View the full Police Ministry Public Order Briefing and Memorandum on
Policing at Bentley here:
http://davidshoebridge.org.au/2014/07/23/crushing-police-force-planned-to-end-peaceful-csg-bloackade/?preview=true&preview_id=8897&preview_nonce=73771f0586



*Media contact: 0408 113 952 or 9230 3030*


-- 

* David ShoebridgeGreens MP in the NSW Legislative Council P: (02) 9230
3030 |Media: 0408 113 952|T: @ShoebridgeMLC
<http://twitter.com/#!/shoebridgemlc> SIGN UP TO STAY IN
TOUCH at davidshoebridge.org.au/sign-up
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