Key facts
- Lord mayor Gavin Morris used his casting vote to bar licensing of Rising Tide events on council land.
- Premier Chris Minns wrote that the council could not distance itself from illegal activity at the protests.
- Police minister Yasmin Catley called Rising Tide bad faith actors and cited 141 arrests in 2025.
- Rising Tide spokesperson Zack Schofield said Paddle for the Planet would go ahead on Saturday at Horseshoe Beach.
- The group's annual six-day blockade next runs in February, with protesters entering the port in kayaks and rafts.
Newcastle council, the local authority for the city that hosts the Port of Newcastle, voted on Tuesday night to stop licensing any Rising Tide events on council land. Independent lord mayor Gavin Morris used his casting vote to pass the ban, saying in a mayoral minute that the group had broken the trust and faith of the Newcastle community by defying police directions at past protests.
The decision followed consultation with New South Wales premier Chris Minns, who wrote to the council that it was not possible for it to distance itself from the illegal activities that occur at these protests. Minns wrote that the protest is only possible through the council's licensing of events at a local park, and that Rising Tide has a history indicating its intent is to disrupt the shipping channel without regard for the law.
Minister for the Hunter and police Yasmin Catley, also consulted, wrote to the council supporting its decision and called Rising Tide bad faith actors. She said the group flouted a 2024 supreme court ruling prohibiting its assembly and ignored statutory requirements for a protected protest in 2025, resulting in 141 arrests.
Rising Tide holds an annual six-day protest in which thousands of participants wade into the port with kayaks and rafts to blockade coal ships, camping on council land and staging a music festival. It demands the immediate cancellation of all new fossil fuel projects, an end to coal exports from Newcastle by 2030, and a 78% tax on fossil fuel profits to fund community and industrial transitions.
During the 2024 protest the Minns government imposed a four-day maritime exclusion zone around the port, but the supreme court found the government had acted improperly and ruled the zone invalid after Rising Tide challenged it. Police charged 173 protesters at that event, and in August withdrew charges against 125 of them. At the 2025 blockade, which stopped three coal ships from entering the port, police arrested and charged 129 protesters who entered the water; those cases remain before the courts.
A smaller paddle-out is planned for Saturday, November 14, ahead of the next annual protest in February. Rising Tide was before the NSW supreme court on Wednesday after police rejected its application for a form 1 permit, and the court is expected to decide later on Wednesday whether to support the police decision not to provide protection from charges under the Summary Offences Act.
Rising Tide spokesperson Zack Schofield said: "Desperate attempts like this to suppress protest are proof that Rising Tide has been effective in building pressure against the world's largest coal port." He said Paddle for the Planet would go ahead on Saturday at Horseshoe Beach, as would future protests.