In the Wellington District Court today the Crown prosecution withdrew all outstanding charges against twenty-five Restore Passenger Rail supporters who temporarily and repeatedly stopped traffic on Wellington roads and motorways in 2022-23.

The climate defender group demanded that the government restore a nationwide, affordable passenger rail service for New Zealanders.

Police originally charged the road-sitters with obstruction, later bumping it up to the criminal offence of endangering transport, carrying a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. Three of the group each spent two weeks in prison and five, including a great-grandmother, a grandmother and a grandfather, wore electronic monitoring bracelets for up to 13 months.

Earlier this year the first of seven jury trials ended after three weeks with one not-guilty verdict (Andrew Sutherland) and a hung jury for three others (Michael Apáthy, Te Wehi Ratana and Tāmati Taptiklis). During the trial, jurors heard from climate experts Dr Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester, and James Renwick, Professor of Physical Geography at Te Herenga Waka. When asked what three degrees Celcius of warming above pre-industrial levels would be like, Professor Anderson replied, “We haven’t seen that for millions and millions of years. … Huge parts of the planet will be uninhabitable.”

Professor Renwick explained that in the worst-case scenarios, sea level rise could reach three to four metres. "Most of downtown Wellington will be underwater, downtown Auckland - most of it will be underwater,” he said.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

“Today’s decision is an important moment for the climate movement,” said Climate Liberation Aotearoa (formerly Restore Passenger Rail) spokesperson Michael Apáthy. “In March, the hung jury result showed that New Zealanders do understand the seriousness of the climate emergency. Today’s decision backs that up. It is also not only a vindication of our democratic right to protest but a criticism of the police charge which was out of all proportion to our actions.”

The group said that their actions in 2022-23 were an attempt to match the urgency of the climate catastrophe, which was, and is still, being largely ignored by the government. They said that a nationwide passenger rail service would begin to bring down New Zealand’s out-of-control transport emissions, while at the same time reducing road congestion, connecting communities and improving the quality of life for New Zealanders.

“We are living through the world’s sixth mass extinction,” said Michael Apáthy. “Climate breakdown is daily news. Floods, wildfires, and droughts are accelerating. Temperatures in Pakistan last week, pre-summer, reached 50 degrees Celsius. That is unsurvivable. Yet instead of working to help safeguard a liveable future this government has downgraded climate change in its 2025 Defence Capability Plan and is spending an extra $12 billion on making our military more ‘modern and combat-capable’.”

“We hope today’s decision will help steer police away from the international trend of increased repression of peaceful protest. When our government continues to fail us on its path of climate denial and erosion of the democratic process and environmental protections, it is left to ordinary people to stand up for our youth and all living creatures. This moment in history calls on all of us to fight for the transformative change needed for our survival. Climate Liberation Aotearoa will continue that fight. Climate action is needed now more than ever.”

© Scoop Media