Eight Greenpeace protesters were sentenced in Hamilton District Court after scaling a Fonterra building at its Horotiu factory in October 2024. Photo / Greenpeace
Fonterra was forced to shut down a drying plant for four hours after Greenpeace protesters climbed a 15-storey building and hung over its air vents.
The vents expel air in case of an internal fire or explosion, so the dairy giant opted to shut the dryer during the protest on October 9, 2024.
The shutdown cost Fonterra almost $300,000.
Now, those activists have been sentenced on a charge of unlawful entry into an enclosed yard.
Dr Christopher Holden, 48, Lina, also known as Amanda, Larsson, 39, Holly Dove, 37, Jason Brook, also known as Upchurch, 50, Britta Hamill, 28, Nicholas Hanafin, 46, Tayla Wong-Lithgow, 27, and Nigel Fannin, 63, appeared in Hamilton District Court earlier this week.
The court heard the group climbed a 1.8m high fence, which had inactive electrical lines at the top, at the Horotiu site about 7am.
Holden and four others then ascended the Powder 1 Plant building, reaching the roof via external stairs.
The others climbed halfway and gained access to the lower roof. They hung a large banner: “Methane Cooks the Climate”.
Holden, who had the job on the roof as safety officer, and his group abseiled down about 15m to unveil a 160sq m banner.
It stated: “Fonterra’s Methane Cooks the Climate”.
As they abseiled down, they passed over the building’s air vents.
Fonterra shut the building down to ensure the protesters’ safety.
Police arrived shortly after and spoke with the group, who came down after a couple of hours.
The dryer was turned off from 8.35am until 12.45pm, causing a loss to Fonterra of $270,484 along with cleaning costs of $15,885.
After negotiations with police and Fonterra, the group agreed to share the cleaning cost and pay just over $1900 each.
In court, Holden, Larsson and Brook sought a discharge without conviction.
Through an affidavit, Holden told the court he’d carried out voluntary medical roles in Ukraine and Gaza, and was a member of Australia’s Flying Royal Doctor Service.
A conviction would impact that work, be a barrier to further employment, and he’d need to declare his conviction to the Australian Health Practitioners’ Regulatory Agency, he said.
It could also impact his aero-medical work and overseas medical registration.
Larsson said in her affidavit, she had dedicated her life to protecting nature and climate change.
She worked as a campaigner for Greenpeace and had lived in New Zealand for about 10 years.
However, her citizenship application, which she’d filed in early 2024, had been on hold, which she believed was due to the court action.
Brook, who had been a “climate justice advocate” for more than a decade, stated a conviction would affect his job at Te Whatu Ora, possibly resulting in “loss of responsibility or even dismissal”.
Counsel for the group, William Mohammed, said there was a “certain irony” that the defendants were before the court for having sought to protect “a very precious part of property, the environment”.
“But yet they are the ones who come before the court for being unlawfully in an enclosed yard.”
However, the group accepted that in exercising their right to a peaceful protest, “something that New Zealand has always been a leader in”, it had placed them “slightly” on the wrong side of the law, Mohammed said.
“These are organised protesters, they are members of an international, highly regarded, charitable organisation.
“It is the nature of some of this destruction that it does place people on the wrong side of the law.”
Of the defendants, only Hanafin had previous convictions - four, but it was submitted he should be sentenced in line with his co-offenders.
Mohammed said each defendant had “very legitimate interests in maintaining a clean criminal history” and contributed significantly to society.
“I invite you to find that those general consequences [of a conviction] need not be borne out by further evidence.
“That when your honour looks at this file, the gravity, I submit, is low ... the fact that it was conducted in a professional way.
“There was, of course, disruption, which is often an effect of exercising a right to peaceful protest.”
Mohammed said there was nothing to suggest the activists were “anything other than very productive, committed members of our community, who have a big heart for the cause they are involved in ...
“It is one which many New Zealanders would have significant sympathy for.”
The police prosecutor described the group’s actions as unlawful protesting, which needed to be deterred.
Police sought a community work sentence for Hanafin, given his previous convictions, and said there was no evidence to support the three applications for discharge without conviction.
Judge Gordon Matenga declined the applications, stating he appreciated the possible impacts a conviction could have on the trio, particularly Holden.
However, the trio had not provided any evidence to prove the direct and indirect consequences of a conviction, in their circumstances, were out of all proportion to the gravity of the offence.
The judge convicted and discharged the group, except for Hanafin.
He was convicted and fined $300. All defendants were ordered to pay court costs of $143.
Greenpeace stood by the protesters, calling their actions “brave” and labelling Fonterra as the country’s “worst climate polluter”.
In a dual statement to NZME, Greenpeace spokesperson Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn and Larsson said the climate crisis was escalating, while “Fonterra’s greenhouse gas emissions are increasing”.
“Fonterra is New Zealand’s worst climate polluter. It’s cooking the climate with superheated methane gas from its oversized dairy herd.
“It’s only natural that people are stepping up to take action to protect this planet as Governments and corporations fail - whether that’s in the courts, the streets, or by putting their bodies on the line just like these brave protesters did.”
Larsson took responsibility for her actions, but said if governments and corporations won’t take action, “then we need to take action ourselves”.
“I’ve signed petitions to Fonterra, made submissions to the Government, gone on protest marches, and followed all the formal processes to raise my concerns.”
Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.