LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) – The boss of a major mining company last week made a plea to the industry to do more to win the hearts and minds of the broader public. A few days later the leader of the country hosting the bulk of his operations threatened to outlaw those opposed to mining.
What makes the situation more bizarre is that the threat against the right to protest was made by Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, a country with a long democratic tradition and a history of political tolerance.
Morrison, the leader of the conservative Liberal Party, told a meeting of a mining lobby group on Nov. 2 that there is a “new breed of radical activism” that didn’t permit the expression of alternative viewpoints.
But seemingly unaware of the hypocrisy he was about to expound, Morrison said his government is looking at measures that would make it illegal to advocate so-called secondary boycotts of companies that do business with miners targeted by climate activists.
“Let me assure you this is not something my government intends to allow to go unchecked,” The Guardian newspaper reported Morrison as saying. “Together with the attorney general, we are working to identify mechanisms that can successfully outlaw these indulgent and selfish practices that threaten the livelihoods of fellow Australians,” Morrison said.
For the rest of this article: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-russell-mining-climatechange/australias-threat-to-outlaw-mining-protests-highlights-industry-split-russell-idUSKBN1XE003