Greens candidate injured in protest set to face court
Hannah Thomas, 35, was charged with hindering or resisting police and not following a move-on direction in a protest at SEC Plating in Sydney's southwest on June 27.
Her case is scheduled for a mention in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday.
The activist and lawyer was among five people arrested. They were protesting outside an Australian firm reportedly linked to the manufacture of components for US fighter jets used by the Israeli Defence Force.
The arrests are subject to an internal review with external oversight by the police watchdog after Thomas suffered an eye injury requiring surgery.
Her lawyer Peter O'Brien has said she might permanently lose vision in that eye.
Mr O'Brien reviewed footage of the arrest and alleged a male officer punched Thomas in the face.
"The charge of resisting police could never be sustained as the police officers were plainly acting outside of the execution of their duties ... with brutal and life-changing consequences," Mr O'Brien said.
Police had misunderstood the law and unlawfully applied move-on directions, he claimed.
Mr O'Brien has also flagged a civil suit against the state over potential allegations including assault and battery, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, misfeasance in public office, and collateral abuse of process.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Brett McFadden has previously said he did not observe any misconduct in the body-worn camera footage of the incident.
The officers involved remain on duty.
Protesters returned to SEC Plating on Friday evening for another rally, where a statement from Ms Thomas was read out.
"We owe it to Palestinians to escalate, to keep targeting companies like SEC Plating, which play a role in the F-35 global supply chain and enable genocide against the Palestinian people," she said.
Ms Thomas ran second to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the inner-west Sydney seat of Grayndler at the May federal election.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
34 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Business and security on the agenda for Albanese, Xi talks
Political differences will bump up against economic opportunities as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets his Chinese counterparts in the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Tuesday's bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang and Communist Party Chairman Zhao Leji - the three highest-ranking members of China's ruling committee - mark the centrepiece of Mr Albanese's six-day tour of the Middle Kingdom. President Xi is top dog in China, and the optics of Mr Albanese's rendezvous with one of the world's most influential leaders will be powerful. But it's his meeting with Premier Li, notionally the Head of Government in China, that will deliver any tangible agreements from the trip if they occur. The meetings come as the Chinese-Australian free trade agreement passes its 10th anniversary. Co-operation between the two nations has increased following a falling out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr Albanese will emphasise the potential for further developing business links at a CEO roundtable hosted by the Business Council of Australia on Tuesday evening. Greater engagement between China and Australia has delivered practical benefits to both nations, building understanding between governments and businesses. 'It enables us to express our differences and to manage them, without our relationship being defined by them,' he will say. 'This is about building stronger ties where our national interests are aligned.' Dialogue will help the countries work together to address the structural imbalances of global steel supply, maximise the economic opportunities of the global shift to net zero, and provide certainty and confidence for businesses to invest, he will say. But fundamental political differences limit the extent of economic co-operation. Mr Albanese is likely to raise Australian concerns over increased Chinese militarism, including Chinese naval exercises off Australian waters, and the detention of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun. Beijing's dissatisfaction over Australia's plan to tear up a Chinese-owned company's lease of Darwin Port is also likely to be broached. An article by a Chinese state media influencer suggested Beijing could restrict Australian imports as retaliation, risking financial blow back for Australian companies. Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black says the two nations' challenges and opportunities would be best met with dialogue. 'And that's exactly what this roundtable is about,' he will say at the event. 'Today's agenda points to the breadth of that shared opportunity: education, smarter agriculture, the green economy and low-carbon transformation. 'But that opportunity is underpinned by the personal connections that we, collectively and personally, have the privilege to establish, re-establish, confirm and enhance today.' Expanding the free trade agreement further into the services and investment sectors will be high on the agenda of the roundtable, as will exploring co-operation in education, smart agriculture, health and aged care. Green energy and low-carbon steel will once again be a hot topic after it formed the focus of a roundtable between Australian iron ore miners and Chinese steelmakers in Shanghai.
Perth Now
34 minutes ago
- Perth Now
What Albo will say to Xi Jinping
The big moment of Anthony Albanese's state visit to China is upon him — a face-to-face with Xi Jinping. The Prime Minister has had a cruisy two days being wooed by Chinese officials and business leaders in the glitzy beauty of central Shanghai. He and his hosts have been keen to boast the boons of deep bilateral trade and tourism ties, emerging from meetings starry-eyed about the future of an economic partnership despite the spectre of an increasingly militaristic regional rivalry. But when Mr Albanese meets the Chinese President on Tuesday, there will be no escaping the touchy topics. Anthony Albanese with Australian businessman Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest at an event in Shanghai on Monday. NewsWire / Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer Credit: News Corp Australia The Chinese have already indicated they will raise the Port of Darwin, which is leased to Chinese logistics giant Landbridge Holdings. A former state media propagandist-turned influencer warned of 'countermeasures' if the Albanese government follows through with its election vow to break the 99-year lease. But speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr Albanese doubled down on the promise, saying his government has 'a very clear position' and that Mr Xi 'is very clear and knowledgeable of that'. 'We have a very clear position that we want the port to go into Australian ownership,' he said before departing for Beijing. 'We've been clear about it, we've been orderly about it, and we will go through that process.' Mr Albanese has been careful not to pre-empt how his meeting with the world's second-most powerful leader will go. 'I'll treat him with the respect that I would any leader of another country and not foreshadow everything today,' he said in his Monday remarks. But he did give some hints on what touchy topics he might have of his own, such as the detention of detention of Australian writer and pro-democracy activist Yang Hengiun. Mr Yang was given a suspended death sentence last year after spending five years behind bars on espionage charges – charges he denies. 'We always raise issues of Australian citizens, and if you look at my record, it's not too bad,' Mr Albanese boasted when asked about Mr Yang. 'I'll put my record there of successfully advocating for Australian citizens, some of which has been criticised when we've been successful.' Mr Albanese was flanked by Socceroos great turned Shanghai Port FC coach Kevin Muscat earlier in the China visit. NewsWire / Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer Credit: News Corp Australia Human rights more broadly could also be on the agenda. Aside from detaining Australians on trumped-up charges, Canberra has protested China's enslavement of Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang province and demanded it implement recommendations made in a UN report. Speaking on Chinese soil in the presence of Chinese officials, Mr Albanese simply repeated his China mantra, saying his government 'will co-operate wherever we can' and 'disagree where we must'. 'We disagree where we must and we put forward our position clearly where we have disagreements,' he said. He flatly refused to say if he would mention the Chinese warships that carried out live-fire drills as they circumnavigated Australia earlier this year. Chinese warships circumnavigated Australia earlier this year. Australian Defence Force Credit: Supplied He also would not comment on whether he would bring up China's support for Russia in its years-long war on Ukraine. There will be space for positives, though, with Mr Albanese eager to quell concerns of a future conflict through trade – an approach Europe took with Russia under Vladimir Putin. He said it was 'important to recognise … that the economic relationship is obviously based on upon a stable and secure region'. 'We've seen the disruption that occurs when there is conflict in the world,' Mr Albanese said. 'That's why we need to make sure that we do everything we can to promote peace and security in the region.' He added building people-to-people ties was key to keeping the peace. It is a stark contrast to warnings from Washington that China could up-end regional peace by invading Taiwan as early as 2027.
Sky News AU
2 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Anthony Albanese warned over 'cagey' Taiwan stance, with Sky News' Peta Credlin claiming it will lead to US 'reckoning'
Sky News host Peta Credlin has warned Prime Minister Anthony Albanese his "cagey" stance on Taiwan risks placing further strain on Australia's alliance with the United States. Credlin said Mr Albanese's noncommittal answers to questions about sending troops to defend Taiwan would encourage the US to question if Australia were really committed to the alliance. She added that if "America does defend Taiwan, Australia will have to be involved. There are no ifs or buts here." Noting the Albanese government refused to send a frigate to the Red Sea in December 2023, marking the 'first time since ANZUS was finalised in 1951 that we have declined a US request for military assistance', Credlin claimed questions about Taiwan were a telling indicator on whether Australia would back its ally. 'Every previous Australian government has recognised that the alliance is a two-way street. We can't expect the Americans to support us in our military campaigns if we're not prepared to support them in theirs,' she said. 'This is where the travelling press pack with the Prime Minister miss the point. The question is not would Australia help Taiwan, it's would Australia help the United States?' Credlin added Mr Albanese was spending a 'remarkably long' time in China and would meet President Xi Jinping for the fourth time on Tuesday, while still not having met President Donald Trump and continuing to refuse calls to increase defence spending. The Sky News host echoed the words of former prime minister Tony Abbott, who said defence spending needed to be 'swiftly' increased to three per cent of GDP. 'If we want the Pax Americana to survive, this unprecedented era of global peace in general terms, then we cannot expect the Americans to do all the heavy lifting on their own,' Credlin said. 'There's a reckoning on the way and few Australians really appreciate just how grave things are.' Credlin said Mr Albanese needed to get some of 'our eggs out of the China basket' given Beijing's aggression economically and militarily, characterised by the rising tension around Taiwan and recent trade boycotts 'only just lifted' against Australia. 'There were $20 billion worth of boycotts placed on our annual exports to China – just because we had the temerity to ask for an independent investigation of the Wuhan virus,' she said. 'For China, trade is politics by other means. Trade is something to be turned on and off like a tap to secure its strategic objectives. 'It's not just the folly of making Australia more economically vulnerable to China. It's the folly of turning trade into a climate crusade.' Credlin said the 'inconvenient truth' was China relied heavily on billions of dollars of Australian iron and coal. The Sky News host said Mr Albanese was mistaken if he thought China shared his 'emissions obsession', when in fact it had not committed to net zero and is building two new coal-fired power stations every week. 'How about that inconvenient truth?' she said. 'So not only is Anthony Albanese missing the point on national security, he's missing it on economic security too.'
