Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia's 58,000 registered charities hold a special place in our communities. Day in and day out they fulfil a vital role in our society, delivering important and often essential services, responding to disasters, providing a helping hand, mentoring our future leaders and much, much more. Our government also strongly supports the right for peaceful protest and encourages everyone to engage in political discourse. This is a key pillar of our democracy and one I will always vigorously fight to uphold.

What I can condemn, however, is illegal political activism in organisations that encourage and participate in criminal activities—particularly if they are masquerading as charities! Tasmanians have had enough of extremist organisations who threaten, harass and endanger the lives of workers who are simply trying to go about their legal, everyday work and provide for their families. Yesterday the Bob Brown Foundation invaded Venture Minerals' Riley Creek mining operation in my electorate of Braddon. Radical activists locked themselves to vehicles preventing access to the mine. This was a selfish and illegal act. They had no regard for the law, no regard for business going about their lawful activities, no regard for the safety of workers, no regard for the fact that their actions monopolised the region's limited emergency response capability for hours, potentially risking lives. Several weeks ago, the same activists targeted a group on the east coast, at McKay sawmill—same deal. This is a total disregard for the law and the rights of businesses to undertake their lawful enterprise and for workers to provide for their families.

Our job-creating, low-impact mining sector and our world-leading sustainable timber forestry industry are the livelihoods and the lifeblood of many organisations and regions across the north-west and the west coast of Tasmania. Every time these extremists invade a workplace, good honest business folk, who are part of the broader subcontractor network, who employ locals, grind to a halt. The person driving the excavator, the boom gate operator, the mill worker, the truck driver—the whole supply chain stops. This illegal action is risking the viability of not only these businesses but the entire network of subcontractors.

These extremists have made it very clear that they will not stop, and that is why I welcome the Morrison government's commitment to strengthen the laws to ensure charities are prohibited from engaging in or promoting theft, vandalism, trespass, assault or threatening behaviour. This will stop activist organisations like the Bob Brown Foundation from masquerading as charities and from promoting and engaging in unlawful behaviour. For Tasmanians who are fed up with this militant behaviour, the change hasn't come soon enough.