SYDNEY: Climate change activists were charged with unlawful protest near Australia's biggest coal export port on April 16 after protesters climbed on a coal train.
New South Wales state police have charged 47 people with rail corridor offences two with malicious damage and one with assaulting a security guard in relation to the unlawful protest activity near the Port of Newcastle.
Climate activist group rising Tide, which claims responsibility for the protest, said arrests were made when people were occupying the train. Police said 14 activists climbed onto a train carriage in a railway corridor in the suburb of Sandgate.
Climate change is a divided issue in Australia, the world's top exporter of coal.
Labour's centre-right government does not support a ban on all new fossil fuel projects. In a country that ranks among the world's biggest carbon emitters per capita, it sees safeguard mechanism reform laws as crucial to its pledge to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.
The government of New South Wales said the Port of Newcastle is the largest bulk shipping port on Australia's east coast and the nation's largest port for coal exports.
The protest group posted an image on Twitter showing protesters in front and on top of a coal train. A banner on the train said it had halted coal into the port and was demanding the Labour Party to immediately cancel all new coal projects.