Queensland Supreme Court grants injunction against activist Ben Pennings

The Queensland Supreme Court has today granted injunctive relief to Adani which forces Brisbanebased anti-fossil fuel activist Mr Ben Pennings to remove social media posts and any other online material related to the ‘Dob in a Contractor’ campaign, remove content from online channels that encourages the collation of confidential material about Adani Australia, and to stop what the company alleges is threatening behaviour towards their contractors and employees.

The injunction was requested in order to prevent Mr Ben Pennings from continuing what Adani Australia claims is a sustained campaign of harassment and intimidation against their business and contractors, whilst the civil legal proceedings that they have brought against him are underway.

“We are pleased with the outcome of today’s hearing that the injunction is now in place, and we will continue to pursue the civil legal proceedings while hoping that Mr Pennings honours the terms of this injunction and refrains from undertaking any further activity that could cause distress to our employees and contractors,” said a statement by Adani Australia.

Adani recently launched civil legal proceedings against anti-fossil fuel activist Mr Ben Pennings to protect its rights, as well as those of its employees and contractors, to carry out legal and legitimate business activities free from intimidation and harassment.

“We have advised Mr Pennings that we would no longer pursue this legal matter if he made a permanent undertaking to: remove any online material related to the ‘Dob in a Contractor’ campaign, remove content from online channels that encourages the collation of confidential material about our business, and to stop what we allege is threatening behaviour towards our contractors and employees. Mr Pennings to date has not agreed to this undertaking and so we are proceeding with the civil case. Our civil legal case alleges that Mr Pennings is a key organiser in the movement to stop the development of our Carmichael Project working alone and with his group Galillee Blockade. We claim that he has been instrumental in organising blockades and the occupation of offices and industrial premises of many of our existing and potential suppliers, as well as some organisations that have absolutely no association with Adani.

“We claim that he has caused distress to workers whose offices he has entered and he has used intimidation in an attempt to force meetings with executives. He has live-streamed video of our employees and our contractors and used their images without their consent or knowledge across social media channels in an alleged attempt to belittle and intimidate them. After almost a decade of this type of intimidation we are saying enough is enough and we are exercising our legal rights to put an end to this obsessive and, in some cases, dangerous behaviour. Importantly, our legal action does not seek to limit free speech. As we have repeatedly stated, we believe a diversity of views is an important part of democracy. The civil legal action seeks to limit the campaign of alleged harassment and intimidation orchestrated by Mr Pennings against our business that aims to prevent us from legally and legitimately pursuing our commercial interests,” the statement further read.