UPDATES - Pine Gap Protesters Fined, But Not Jailed, In Groundbreaking Court Case

- Murray Horton

Peace Researcher 34 – July 2007

PR 33 reported in detail the December 2005 protest action at Pine Gap by the Australian group Christians Against All Terrorism (November 2006, “Aussie Activists Occupy Top Secret Pine Gap Spy Base: First To Ever Face Draconian Charges”, by Murray Horton, which can be read online at http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr33-137b.html ). Donna Mulhearn, Jim Dowling, Adele Goldie and Bryan Law made a non-violent Citizens’ Inspection right into the base, getting very near to the buildings in the inner sanctum (they reached the technical support area, the first protesters to ever do so, even climbing onto the roof of one building, before being arrested). The Federal Government decided to throw the book at them, making the Pine Gap Four the first people to ever be charged under the 1952 Defence (Special Undertakings) Act, a process which required the approval of the Attorney-General. They each faced up to seven years in prison and/or a fine of $A46,200.

The groundbreaking case came to trial in Alice Springs in May and June 2007. The Crown tried to have all four held in a kind of house arrest during the trial to prevent them undertaking any further protests at Pine Gap while they were in town. The judge dismissed that application, remanding them on bail (there were protests at Pine Gap during the trial, including some token outer fence climbing. No further charges were laid against anyone). All four represented themselves and the judge allowed them to introduce evidence about the function and purpose of the spybase (over the objections of the Crown. By contrast, the last time there was a Waihopai spybase protest trial – Blenheim, 1997 – the judge refused to allow any such evidence about Waihopai’s function, dismissing it all as “hearsay”, and confined the hearing entirely to the charge of trespass faced by the 20 defendants).

Not surprisingly the jury didn’t take long to convict all four (they certainly didn’t deny doing it, and had gone out of their way to be arrested inside the base). They fully expected to go to prison and the Crown asked for them to jailed, submitting that their action was one of “striking at the heart of the national security and the national interest” (Daily Telegraph, 15/6/07; “Pine Gap protesters avoid jail”, Jonathan Dart). But Justice Sally Thomas was not prepared to play ball with the Government, saying that the maximum penalties were severe, considering that hundreds of people had been tried in lower courts for Pine Gap protests over the decades and none of them had been jailed.

She fined the Pine Gap Four a total of $A3,250 and ordered them to pay a total of $A10,075.89 for damaging the fences (namely by cutting them, to get in). The judge pointed out that this was the first time anyone had been sentenced in Australia under this Cold War relic of a law and that it would set a precedent for future cases arising from Pine Gap protests. ABC salutes the courage of our Australian colleagues and we’re sure that Pine Gap will continue to be a focus of protest.

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