Climate change activist gets four months after scaling a 60-metre crane at Port Botany Sydney
A activist has been given a four-month jail term for scaling a 60-metre crane as part of week-long protests at Australia's busiest container port. Maxim Curmi, 26, streamed footage of himself climbing the crane on Friday as part of organised protests by Blockade Australia at Port Botany in . 'I'm taking this action because we need to change Australia's exploitative practices and climate change denial with a tinge of greenwashing,' Mr Curmi said from atop the crane in his stream. 'Normal people who are concerned about this climate crisis can do something, we are not beholden to waiting for the right political party to do something.' Mr Curmi donned gloves and a ski jacket before running through the port, over train lines, jumping a number of barbed wire fences, and scaling the crane. Once perched at the top he tied himself to the structure, temporarily shutting down one of the port cargo terminals and preventing a ship from being loaded. 'It is a risky thing to do. I am risking my life right now, but not acting is more risky,' he said. Mr Curmi appeared at Waverley Local Court on Monday where he pled guilty to five charges including endangering the safety of a person on the railway and risking the safety of another by climbing a building or structure. His court appearance followed a taskforce being set up by police to stay ahead of the protesters and an increase in penalties. Those protesters who break the law can receive up two years in jail in NSW and be slugged with a $22,000 fine for disrupting traffic. Mr Curmi was fined $1,500 and was handed a four-month jail sentence ending on July 24. Blockade Australia said on its website that 'disrupting the movement of resources, goods and labour through roads, port, and rail is a legitimate and appropriate response to Australian expansionism'. But critics have said protests which use self described 'destructive action' make no concrete change in increasing the support for climate action but rather appeal to the already converted. 'The people the climate movement needs to win over are the kinds of people turned off by events such as those at Botany Bay,' leading social trends researcher Rebecca Huntley wrote for The Sydney Morning Herald. 'In the qualitative research I have done, groups such as Extinction Rebellion come up in conversation in a very negative way and can be a barrier to talking about global warming and how climate action might actually improve their lives.' 'Agree with your passion, agree with your ideals, but your 15 seconds of fame does nothing but polarise the message and rally the naysayers.' one person wrote on the group's Facebook page. 'Blockade Australia are doing damage to the climate cause. Let the ranting begin.' Mr Curmi's protest marked the fourth straight day of disruptions at the port with several protests - including at least two in which people suspended themselves from infrastructure - gaining attention. Two German brothers will likely be deported over their involvement in the protests this week, which blocked peak-hour traffic in Sydney around Port Botany. The brothers were arrested after suspending themselves from poles in and around the shipping terminal on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said their visas were cancelled on 'good order grounds'. 'So we've cancelled those visas and then the Australian Border Force will be effecting their removal from Australia as soon as possible,' he told Sydney radio station 2GB. Blockade Australia said the decision was part of 'the government's draconian overreach' that involved 'fear tactics' designed to 'squash dissent'. The group said the decision would not deter it from further action. Emma Dorge, 25, was granted bail on the weekend for her role in the protests and ordered not to associate with Blockade Australia members. She suspended herself from a bridge at the port and was charged with endanger safety of person on railway, remain on enclosed land not prescribed premises without lawful excuse, refuse/fail to comply with direction, and encourage the carrying on operation for commission of crime. Police on Thursday also arrested Alex Pearse, 33, who was hanging from a pole nine metres above the port's rail line, blocking container trains in and out. Acting Premier Paul Toole said the government would no longer tolerate the 'disgraceful' stunts that disrupted traffic. 'Over the last few days we've seen protesters around this state and clearly they have no respect for the law ... enough is enough,' he told reporters. 'These kinds of acts are just disgraceful.' The penalties apply to anyone caught protesting on bridges and roads across the state. NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge criticised the government's heavy-handed approach saying it was a 'politically-motivated crackdown on legitimate political expression'. 'Every tonne of coal, oil and gas we burn will increase the intensity and speed of climate change - the activists standing up to stop this should be congratulated, not arrested.' But Attorney-General Mark Speakman said he would ensure 'there is an effective deterrent in our law to deal with these economic vandals'. Opposition leader Chris Minns also lambasted the group's behaviour as 'disruptive'. 'They're not disrupting billionaire coal barons, they're actually hitting ordinary Australians who are just going about their work,' he said. Blockade Australia has vowed to continue disrupting roads and rail traffic into the port and is calling for a major public disruption of Sydney from June 27. Greenpeace condemned the new anti-protest laws as anti-democratic and indicative of a worrying trend of suppression of protest activity in Australia. Spokeswoman Katrina Bullock said the new laws could significantly stifle advocacy and protest activity. 'These sweeping new laws, rushed through in a knee-jerk response to protest activity, are the latest in a suite of increasingly draconian regulatory measures introduced in Australia to restrict climate activism,' she said.