A Tasmanian environmental activist has been sentenced to three months imprisonment for continued mining protests in the states west.
Veterinarian and forest activist Colette Joan Harmsen appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court on Friday, charged with four counts of trespass, one count of wilfully obstruct the use of any road and fail to comply with a direction of a police officer.
The charges stem from Harmsen’s involvement in various protests, including a demonstration at an MMG mine near Rosebery on the west coast of Tasmania in 2021, as well as protests on a Venture Minerals mine site at Tullah and a Sustainable Timbers logging site between 2021 and 2023.
The ABC reports that the 47-year-old veterinarian has been actively involved in advocating against logging and mining for over a decade.
Earlier this year, Harmsen pleaded guilty to multiple counts of trespassing and other offences committed during protests over the past two years.
At the time, she was already subject to a suspended jail sentence of three months for prior offences.
Magistrate Chris Webster deemed that Harmsen had violated the law too many times and “reactivated” her suspended sentence, resulting in her imprisonment for the next three months.
Harmsen also received a six-month sentence for the recent trespass offences, which will be fully suspended if she maintains good behaviour for the next two years.
This case marks the first time in over a decade that an environmental activist has been sentenced to jail time in Tasmania.
Veteran environment campaigner Bob Brown said Harmsen “deserves an Order of Australia” following the sentencing.
“Dr Colette Harmsen is my friend of many years and I salute her zeal for saving the natural world,” Brown said.
“She has a deep and abiding love for life on Earth and, like millions more, is horrified by the deliberate killing of what’s left.”
“Some scientists say 70 per cent has been destroyed since 1970 and the rate is increasing.”
“Colette is intelligent and kind and bravely decided to take action to save nature. She deserves an Order of Australia.”
