The jailing of a young climate protester is a prime example of Australia’s authoritarian drift | Isabelle Reinecke

Federal and state governments should spend more time trying to improve people's lives and less time trying to keep them quiet

For the past 20 years, human rights experts and lawyers have been sounding the alarm on Australia's democracy and the increasing tendency among state and federal governments towards suppressing dissent from the community. Even more alarmingly, the criminalisation of protest and increasingly inflammatory rhetoric from police and politicians is accompanied by moves to neuter the legal frameworks established to hold lawmakers accountable.

The jailing of a 22-year-old climate change protester is a prime example of this authoritarian tendency. Eric Serge Herbert was sentenced to 12 months in prison for his part in a two-week anti-coal protest under the banner of Blockade Australia. Herbert had blocked a coal train by climbing it in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Perhaps he got off lightly: the NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, had threatened to charge protesters who block rail lines with laws designed for those who wilfully seek to harm or kill rail passengers, which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years.