With so-called sovereign citizens having camped out at Bravus’ Carmichael coal mine for over 18 months, the company is urging the Queensland Government to take the threat seriously.
Anti-coal activist Coedie McAvoy has reportedly declared himself ‘head of state’ over the area on Bravus’ mining lease, with plans to issue his own licenses, passports and numberplates from a government building he plans to construct, Bravus reports.
The 18-month stand-off recently escalated.
In February, McAvoy made good on his slew of social media threats when he and an accomplice intercepted a Bravus vehicle by pulling in front of it and forcing it to stop. McAvoy then allegedly attempted to drag an Indigenous environmental ranger from the vehicle under the threat of subjecting the worker to “tribal law”.
Just this week, McAvoy warned Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll that police officers would be subject to “sanctions under tribal law” if they entered the area.
A Bravus spokesperson said McAvoy’s threats must be taken seriously by the Queensland Government.
“Mr McAvoy and those staying at his unlawful protest camp on our Carmichael Mining Lease have already attempted to intimidate people working at our mine and have threatened them with violence for just doing their jobs, and now the Queensland Police are facing the same thing,” the spokesperson said.
“Mr McAvoy has derided the Queensland Police Service by likening them to Nazi Germany’s secret police and has called for a guillotine so ‘heads roll’ in a hate-filled rap song directed at the Queensland Premier.
“Others who share Mr McAvoy’s dangerous anti-authority and anti-government ideology are watching what is happening at this unlawful camp and are becoming emboldened by it.
“A sovereign citizen compound wouldn’t be left unaddressed in inner-city Brisbane, and this one shouldn’t be ignored because it is out of sight in regional Queensland.
Broadly speaking, the sovereign citizen movement includes people who are “generally characterised by an anti-authority idea that they are not under the jurisdiction of the government and the law does not apply to them”.
*Update*
Hours ago, Queensland police charged McAvoy with assault for the February incident involving the environmental ranger.
What effect this will have in moving McAvoy’s camp from the Carmichael site remains to be seen.