Anti-coal campaigners say security intelligence officers have made a surprise visit to a share house of activists to warn them not to undertake protests that put people and infrastructure at risk.
Paul Connor, a campaigner with the group Quit Coal who last week locked himself in the foyer of Premier Ted Baillieu’s office in protest over the government’s plans for an expanded brown coal industry, said two officers visited his house on Wednesday afternoon.
It came just hours before The Age revealed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has been providing intelligence to the federal government on environmental groups that campaign against coal mining.
Mr Connor said the officers identified themselves as from an unspecified security intelligence group.
He said they had a ”reasonably pleasant” 20-minute conversation, but that the surprise nature of the meeting ”bordered on intimidation”. He said two other protesters from the group received phone calls from security officers on Wednesday.
”The officers said they were concerned that our activism would escalate and they were especially concerned because of what’s planned at the moment,” he said.
”We were a little bit indignant because we have had a good relationship with the [Victorian police] and these officers didn’t properly identify themselves.”
The Age has reported that security officials have privately expressed concerns that environmental activists wanting to see dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions pose greater threats to energy infrastructure than terrorists.
Quit Coal protesters have twice disrupted exploration drilling for brown coal at Bacchus Marsh and twice locked themselves in the foyer of 1 Treasury Place, home to the office of Premier Ted Baillieu. The most recent protest lasted eight hours until the group won a meeting with Mr Baillieu’s chief of staff, Tony Nutt.
Mr Connor said Quit Coal was a non-violent organisation linked to environment group Friends of the Earth, and did not wish to damage ”critical infrastructure or cause anyone any physical harm”.
