An outraged driver has lashed out at a Blockade Australia protester who blocked traffic in the Sydney Harbor tunnel in the name of climate change on Monday morning.
A furious motorist has clashed with a climate change activist who blocked traffic in the Sydney Harbor tunnel by being chained behind the wheel.
Mali, 22, parked his white hatchback through two lanes at the south entrance of the tunnel north of Sydney on Monday morning, stopping traffic at rush hour.
He had wrapped a bicycle lock around his neck and got stuck in the steering wheel of the vehicle as part of Blockade Australia’s protest action when he began broadcasting the environmental group’s Facebook page live from inside the car .
“There are very angry people who are yelling at me and threatening and knocking on doors,” he told the camera.
“The police are on their way, and I’m not sure how long this will happen. I’m not sure what will happen.”
During the live broadcast a fed-up motorist is seen spilling into the vehicle before triggering a diatribe of verbal abuse.
“You’re fucking everyone’s day, idiot,” he shouts.
“Get the shit out of the way!”
Unperturbed by the obscenities, Mali turns to the camera and says, “I would tell this man that I am with you. It’s for you, it’s for your family that we do this. “
“It’s for people who love that we take that position because it’s for all of us that we need our life support systems.”
The man continues to shout obscenities as he quietly drinks water from a plastic bottle.
Eventually, she was released from the vehicle and was among the 10 people charged with her involvement in the protests.
NSW Deputy Prime Minister Paul Toole told Sky News Australia he was “absolutely furious” at what he witnessed in the city on Monday morning.
“A lot of people are just trying to go to work, people are just trying to take their kids to school and people who are trying to make a decent and honest living,” News Day presenter Danica De said Giorgio.
He labeled the protesters as “professional plagues” that “did not help their cause at the end of the day” infuriating the public with their actions.
“What they really are are economic vandals and such actions and behaviors will not be tolerated in the state,” Toole added.
Protesters could be punished with a $ 22,000 fine or up to two years in prison for illegally disrupting public roads, railroads, tunnels, bridges and industrial estates.
Blockade Australia stated in a Facebook post that they were aiming at the heart of “an operating system designed to destroy our climate”.
“Sydney has become the political and economic capital of Australia. It makes a lot of sense to start with the bowels of this system and alter its most important points,” the group said.