Essay by Eric Worrall
The kids grew up: Australia is reaping a bitter harvest, for enabling and encouraging a foreign criminal climate radical to groom our kids.
Why Australia’s answer to Greta Thunberg is facing years behind bars
At 19, this climate activist is now facing serious legal consequences over a foiled protest outside the home of the boss of an energy giant in Western Australia. Here’s why she still believes she’s on the right side of history.
Published 12 October 2023 5:40am
By Tessa Fox
Source: SBS NewsEven as a young kid in school, Matilda Lane-Rose always spoke up when she saw injustices in the playground.
Later, at the age of 15, she’d stand in front of hundreds of students engaged in the School Strike for Climate rallies with a megaphone.
…
For her, the anxieties and fears now-famous climate activist Greta Thunberg held of the future amid climate change were relatable, and seeing someone the same age taking action was empowering.
“I just decided I’m going to do something to stop this rather than just accept it,” Lane-Rose told SBS News on her decision to campaign for climate justice.
…
Five years later, Lane-Rose has become a prominent young climate activist, and the university student, now 19, faces a charge of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. She’s also been slapped with a violence restraining order, had her home raided and possessions seized and been banned from associating with fellow campaigners.
…
Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-australias-answer-to-greta-thunberg-is-facing-years-behind-bars/ionacwx5y
Matilda Lane-Rose is legally an adult, so she will have to answer for her actions in an adult court. There is no fixing that.
But all the teachers, politicians and other adult influencers who helped make Greta Thunberg such a big part of her life, who encouraged her to embrace the climate extremism which led to her alleged criminal acts, should hang their head in shame.
All those teachers unions and church groups who backed the climate strikers, all the senior politicians who voiced support, who gave Greta a megaphone which she used to twist the minds of our kids, you helped make Matilda into the climate radical she is today.
The article claims even as a kid Matilda has a strong sense of justice, that she tried to keep other kids safe. Imagine such a dedicated, committed person using that sense of justice in a positive way, teaching and protecting kids, working in child safety, or for our police or security services. She could have been a real asset to society.
All those doors to a better future which could have been will be closed if Matilda is convicted of a serious crime, closed by the child groomers who took Matilda’s love and care for others, and twisted it into fanaticism and climate radicalism.
Matilda Lane-Rose will, she must and will bear responsibility for her adult actions, and be punished for any crimes she has committed. But with all my heart I wish the cowards who egged her on, who enabled and encouraged Greta and other climate radicals groom our kids, I wish they could also be made to pay for what they did to young adults like Matilda.
Update (EW): Matilda’s arrest appears to be in relation to radical climate activists targeting Oil CEO Meg O’Neill.
Update 2 (EW): h/t Richard Page – Gerard Mazza, one of Matilda’s former school teachers, is a co-defendant to the charges Matilda faces. If Gerard is found guilty, I’ll be seriously disappointed if he is ever trusted around kids again.
Don’t ask a climate alarmist to take accountability for their actions. It is not possible. Taking accountability would destroy the movement. That tells me all I have to know about Climate Alarmists.
Until I read this I did not know that Greta Thunberg had a criminal record in Sweden; the country that awarded Al Gore the Nobel prize for is wildly inaccurate ‘ Inconvenient Truth’ documentary film. They are such ‘dyed in the wool’ climate changing global warmists that I thought they’d be giving her a special Nobel award.
I am no the wiser for having read this several times. “Conspiracy to commit an indictable offense” — what the heck does that mean? “foiled protest outside the home of the boss of an energy giant” — could you be any barer in details?
No, I’m not going to google her name. What’s the point of a news article which expects the readers to find the news elsewhere?
I’ve added an update which links to a previous WUWT article on this issue. The full article I linked described some details of the crime she is alleged to have committed.
Thanks. That article is also pretty vague. I’ll just put it down to different legal systems and what the media are allowed to report. I believe Britain really limits what can be said pre-trial, and Australia may follow.
Indictable offences are separate to lower scale summary offences .
In US terms think of indictable as felony crime
I understood that. But it covers a veritable multitude of sins.
Basically for allegedly organising a mass trespass with damages. The charges mean that she probably wasn’t at the event herself, or that the police can’t prove she was there. Presumably the Police may have found enough evidence to link her to organising the event, or at least to many of the people involved.
indictable offense?
At the low end that could be stamping around, making all kinds of noise, while making a mess of his lawn.
At the high end that could be killing him and his family.
Felonious Mopery.
It sounds a lot like my favorite catch-all charge: suspicion of intent to conspire.
Make no mistake. The “adult” activists constantly try to identify and target vulnerable children they think are candidates to lead radical and illegal actions for the cause. Parents are either culpable or asleep at the wheel of parenthood.
If you have young children — talk to them! often about these things. Be aware of the signs, educate yourself.
Oddly enough you don’t have to dig into this story very far before discovering that one of her co-defendants, Gerard Mazza, was a teacher at the school she went to before University, although not her teacher specifically.
ooorrrr.. diddums !!
Just so people know–she’s being indicted for protesting peacefully. Australia has passed laws that in the US would be blatantly unconstitutional because they grossly infringe on the right to protest. She’s not indicted for terrorism or anything like it, but for protest. And you guys are cheering on authoritarianism. For those who are history-challenged protest is what got us unions, the 40 hour week, ending laws that oppressed races and women–stuff like that.
Lucky this isn’t the USA so we don’t need to tolerate the likes of her attacking our homes and assaulting our legal rights to quiet enjoyment.
Conspiracy to commit a crime is big news in the USA and is used against conservatives on a regular basis. Protesting peacefully is not a crime in Australia either but conspiring to attack ones home or person is a crime just as would conspiring to commit any crime anywhere in the civilised world.
She “protested” on someone’s property. That in itself is a crime. It is called “trespass”. And any other “protest” that proceeds from there.
In the UK trespass is a civil offence (unless it’s on military land), not a criminal one. Whats the situation in Oz?
In the US, you can be arrested for trespass, I believe it is a misdemeanor, unless accompanied by property damage or assault.
Each state is different. In MT there is common trespass and criminal trespass.
The later can be serious, such as entering/breaking into a home, business,
automobile or entering a property that is fenced and posted. As far as this
gal goes I came of age when kids went to collage to learn how to riot, the
Vietnam War years. Many of those went on to the enviro radical side
to now the “climate emergency” cult. I’m sure some psychologist has
a clinical definition for those types. No known cure other than another
little ice age.
Please read and comprehend the charges, Elernerigc.
She is charged with “CONSPIRACY” to commit an offence.
Which means to practise to conscript, engage, collaborate with others to offend.
So she’s expanding the involvements, scale & scope of the offence.
That’s why the charge and penalty for say robbery in company with others is a more serious crime than robbery on your own.
The protest wasnt peaceful in a public space
I dont know which constitution you are looking at but the US right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. , the Supreme Court has said, can be shut down for violence and intimidation
Exactly what they were planning/carried out at a private citizens home– not a government building.
I think you can stop playing at constitutional lawyer, as many will say elernerigc , you dont have a clue
Last I looked it’s the Democrats trying to restrict free speech here in the US. Fortunately we do have the Bill of Rights and lots of people who will die to defend it. And I agree with you that being an idiot like this girl is not a crime if indeed all she is in legal trouble for is protesting. People in the US (particularly but not solely Democrat politicians) never think the shoe will be on the other foot. Politicians are a despicable lot for the most part and I sure as hell don’t want any of them having any power over free expression. So i would say celebrating her getting hers is mistaken as any one of us who tend to be skeptical of the accepted “conventional wisdom” could be next if government dirtbags get their way. Plus shutting her up will make people forget she’s an idiot.
The right to protest isn’t unlimited. Anyway this wasn’t peaceful protest for a grievance of the government, it was a private home of fossil fuel company’s CEO , who also is a woman
Indeed if this was US the castle doctrine in some states would allow the home owner to use leathal force to protect against a home invasion like this..
You also don’t understand that the bill of rights protest doesn’t extend to home invasions of private property. In western Australia you can’t use leathal force to defend your property
“In western Australia you can’t use lethal force to defend your property”
That’s crazy!
I’m sure glad I live in the good ole USA. We can defend ourselves from intruders here.
Sometime in the 60’s, the courts invented a duty flee concept to the law, and since that time, if one has the ability to flee, one was legally obligated to do so. This over turned over a century of precedent.
About a decade ago, the supreme court revisited this issue and re-instated the earlier precedent.
What is required varies from state to state.
In some states, you are only allowed to use lethal force if the assailant has entered your home. Others allow lethal force anywhere on your property.
Some require that the intruder has to make some kind of threat to your, your family or property before lethal force is authorized.
Most require you, if there is a chance, to use lesser levels of force before you can use lethal force. In other words, you can’t just shoot the criter, you have to warn him first.
On the other hand, if the first time you see the guy, he’s holding a knife on your wife, you are allowed to blaze away without warning him first.
If she had organized a protest in front of the company’s headquarters building, I would agree with you completely. But going after the man and his family by moving the protest to his private residence is beyond the pale.
“For those who are history-challenged protest is what got us unions…”
Unions have a dark side too.
The only people who have ever benefited from unions, are those who run them.
State workers here in Wokeachusetts have very powerful labor unions- and as you might guess they are vastly overpaid. And that’s about the crooks- like the state turnpike cops who (many of them) routinely claimed they were working 100+ hours per week and NOBODY noticed for years. Some were making a quarter million bucks per year. Dozens have been accused of this crime. So far, I believe only one lower level cop has been punished. Amazing that the bosses never noticed- the auditors never noticed. The people who cut the paychecks never noticed.
Even FDR recognized that there was a inherent problem with allowing government workers to unionize.
If the free market, a company that pays its workers too much, will soon be going out of business. If all companies in a sector are infested with the same union, it’s offshore competitors who will end up putting the unionized companies out of business.
In the government sector, there are no competing companies, that can provide a counter balance to union greed. No matter how high wages rise, the government can just raise taxes. This inevitably results in an incestuous relationship where the unions get to pick their bosses. Union dues are used to buy politicians, politicians show their gratitude by giving the unions whatever they want. The only ones who suffer are the tax payers, and anyone who relies on government supplied services.
Government workers should be forbidden from unionizing.
Another thing, just as it’s bad for one company to dominate an entire industry, it’s also a bad thing for one union to dominate an entire industry.
“And you guys are cheering on authoritarianism.”
Who are these “you guys” you are referring to?
That would be the people who object to the making of terroristic threats towards anyone the left doesn’t like.
It was employers who got you the 40 hour work week. Employers who invested in technology that increased the productivity of the average worker. Without that technology, there would be no money to pay for shorter work weeks.
She is being indicted for conspiring with others to get others to do something illegal, in the guise of protest, and without peaceful intent.
None of which has anything to do with your 40 hr week rationalizations.
So you don’t really understand what trespass is, do you? So you believe that anyone is entitled to come on your property and shriek epithets at you and what you do? YOU are the reason why civilisation is collapsing in on itself.
I don’t know what to call humans between 18 an8 25. Young adult has been coopted by a fictional literature category ironically targeted at an older-than-25 audience.
I would not call them children -or- adults.
The frontal lobe isn’t fully developed till about age 25. Consequences and actions are part of that development.
Vehicle insurance policies are more expensive for under 25s in Australia. Statistically, there are more accidents in that group.
Intermediates? Transitional humans?
Inbetweenies?
pre-adults?
Gullibles?
Gullibles seems most fitting, but I usually like them and I don’t want to hurt their feelings.Transitional humans is safer.
I watched the painful ABC ”doco” that followed the planning of the protest the other night.
These people are clueless, moronic clowns plying with paint. They have no idea what they’re doing.
London to a brick she gets of with a ”warning”.
If she didn’t break anything then fine. Jailing people for stupidity sets a dangerous precedent.
I thought harassing someone was considered bullying these days.
Stooping to the level of idiot leftist arguements isn’t really going to convince anyone even though I share your annoyance that our school systems in The West have produced so many of them.
It may be that the police reaction to this incident is intended to shut down and stop further incidents from happening. If so she’ll likely have a harsher sentence than otherwise.
I dunno, I can think of some politicians who might be described as criminally dumb…
yes. The police were tipped off so were waiting inside a garage or something and the actual violence was too bad.
“Even as a young kid in school, Matilda Lane-Rose always spoke up when she saw injustices in the playground.”
I’m going to the article to see what playground incident the author describes to support her assertion of child heroism.
Nope, the heroic example was left to the imagination on the first article Google found.
Also, she looks significantly less like a child in the photo of her at the protest. She looked a lot like a young woman you might find on a typical USA college campus.
As always, creatives know how to use camera-angle-up and camera-angle-down to make a point.
Sigh – protest photos… Vibrant young women and young men who went to the protest … for other reasons.
We all know why the dudes were there, lol.
I believe the claim. Radicals and terrorists always believe they are the good guys. People who care, who can be brainwashed into believing the radical cause is right, are valuable assets to such filth.
Yeah, you _sound_ right to me, but what’s the example. If she really did something heroic, write out an example. A good writer might have influenced my opinion of her subject with relatable pathos.
Sounds like a kid who told on other kids and got adults to intervene. Sometimes necessary, but tattling on other kids as a habit means they ostracize her. In other words, an unhappy little girl.
Without specifics I have nothing to say.
And yet you said something. Is this some sort of zen philosophy?
Could be, but it would have been clearer if he had completed the sense unit by adding “on the matter.” But the Zen suggestion is fun. “Without specifics hit me on the head” is even better Zen.
“Without specifics I have nothing to say, specifically.”
There, fixed if for you.
No charge.
Nice example of virtue signaling.
At least his virtue signaling didn’t cost me a dime!
She’ll get a small fine and a warning that reoffending will be more serious. Obviously her group ran afoul of someone with big money as opposed to being supported by someone with big money.
This is what Distinction Rebellion has found, be a PIA to regular people driving on public roads, cuz going to rich people’s houses gets you harshly treated by security guards, or they turn the lawn sprinklers on you, the media doesn’t show up, you get charged with trespassing, plus nobody is home.
I don’t recall reading that one of the organisers of XR had been arrested? That would have changed matters.
Eric,
Just for the sake of consistency do you agree that climate protesters and anti-vac and anti-lockdown protesters should be treated the same? And if you can be sentenced to 2 years in maximum security prison for blocking roads in NSW then surely that should apply to everyone who protested the COVID lockdowns?
Yes, protestors should be treated the same. I don’t support everything which happened during the Covid protests. I do support assembling peacefully in public spaces, holding public rallies, making speeches and displaying banners. And I have no problem with protestors staging marches – I think there should be a very high bar for banning such marches.
But my understanding is Matilda is being accused of conspiring to stage a property invasion, possibly a home invasion, of a private home. Surely that doesn’t fit anyone’s idea of reasonable lawful protest.
Name one anti-vac protest that invaded a person’s home !
Izzak,
You really want to equate protests over climate with protest over medical procedures/mandates? Really???
Why not?
I don’t see anything in the law that describes how different rules apply depending on the subject of your protest.
That’s OK . . . you prefer to look to “law” for guidance, while I prefer to look to common sense.
When dealing with matters of law, it is only common sense to rely on the law for guidance.
I’m a bit confused with your statements….
Are you saying that “everyone who protested the COVID lockdowns” blocked roads in NSW. (did anyone, protesting any aspect of COVID policies, block roads anywhere?)
What, specifically, did “everyone who protested the COVID lockdowns” do that can be considered an equivalent action to limiting movement and freedom of the general public?
Seems to me that the COVID policies that people didn’t like included the limitation of movement and freedom of the general public (as well as the loss of personal physical autonomy).
I
Except there was nobody on the roads for them to block.
Izzy again managing to display total and abject ignorance.
It’s a bloody shame she didn’t get more education and less indoctrination from those tasked to do that. Unfortunately she is probably the tip of the iceberge. Much worse awaits. Me thinks.
So true. Not all of these kids will grow out of it.
According to the WA Criminal Code Act Compilation Act 1913 it is a criminal offence to “pursue” a person including by watching or besetting their home in order to intimidate them into changing their actions through threats or harassment (in the reference they give the example of strikers besetting someone who goes on working).
The offence carries a maximum penalty of 3 years of imprisonment, although this can be extended to up to eight years of imprisonment for aggravated offences.
Unions and others have been protesting at billionaires’ homes and offices for decades, also at the homes of politicians. Strikes by their nature are disruptive. Why don’t we just outlaw all strikes, hmm? Great idea? Maybe we could go back to slavery–or maybe you won’t volunteer to be the slave? By opposing effective protests against the powerful–you’re paving the way for your own enslavement.
OK
But
don’t try that in a small town.
cue Jason Aldean methinks….
Jason Aldean – Try That In A Small Town (Official Music Video) – YouTube
That reply is totally irrelevant to what I wrote.
Over reacting and getting hysterical is what the left does whenever their will is thwarted.
Unions and others have been protesting outside the homes and property of billionaires or ceo’s. There is a difference – Unions and others are not quite so monumentally stupid as to force their way onto said billionaires private property and cause damage in the process. Unions and others knew full well that, if they did as these idjits have done, they would lose all legitimacy as protestors and would become common criminals.
So unions have been allowed to break the law for decades, and this means we should let everyone you agree with also break the law.
Preventing others from entering a building, public or private, should be against the law, and is. Just because the police union decides not to enforce the law against fellow unionists is not evidence that everyone else should be allowed to break the law.
If you want to withhold your labor, fine and dandy, just don’t prevent others from taking your job while you are being all noble and self sacrificing.
Not allowing leftists to terrorize those they don’t like, is the equivalent of slavery?
You really don’t visit reality very often, do you.
Not ‘faces’, but ‘Should get’.
Might well get. Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco spent 15 months of her sentence in prison before being released. Australian courts are handing out harsher sentences to deter others; she’s facing 3 years if it’s dealt with in magistrates court or 5 years if the case is moved to a district court, so assume, if found guilty, she’ll serve about half that time.
If your family at home had been threatened with violent phone calls like my wife was while I was away on business and sometimes known to be away from TV news, then you would not treat this matter lightly.
There is in Australia a current wave of violent home invasions, often with car thefts, stolen valuables and physical injury, machete or knife.
The home owner does have a right to treat home as castle and to expect proportionate responses in sentencing.
Geoff S
Have Aussies lost their gun rights, as exist in America? I once put stickers that say “Member of the National Rifle Association” or something like that on my home and truck. Had no problems from anyone. Wasn’t actually a member. A member friend of mine gave them to me.
In the US it’s not uncommon to see signs at home or business that say something to the effect “This home protected by (the company that installed the security system)”.
I saw a sign once that said, “This home protected by Smith & Wesson”. 😎
It’s my understanding that Israelis don’t have a gun rights law. If they had been heavily armed- the result of the Hamas invasion on those neighborhoods would have been a lot different. Given that Israel is constantly being threatened I can’t understand why everyone isn’t armed to the teeth. I just saw that NOW the Israeli government has provided arms to anyone in the south of the country who wants them. I believe in Switzerland, not only is every man a well trained soldier but they all are very well armed and ready for a battle on a moments notice- which is probably why no nation has attacked it in centuries.
Israel does have gun ownership – if an Israeli feels that they need protection then they can apply for a gun permit – before this, over 2% of Israeli’s had gun permits, although that number is now rising.
It’s soooo 21st Century to blame others for your actions… “Groomed”, oh, come on! The “nothing I do is ever my fault” attitude is typical of her generation, which needs to learn that actions have consequences and that the fervency of one’s belief in a cause does not justify law-breaking. Snowflakes, take note!
I made it clear I think she needs to accept the consequences of any lawbreaking. But I think it is legitimate and appropriate to point a few fingers at the authority figures in her young life who helped mess her up, just as it would be appropriate to point a finger at say a teacher or other authority figure who helped a young addict get started on drugs.
This young lady was let down badly by people who should have been offering better guidance.
Gerard Mazza, a teacher at her former school, is one of her co-defendants on this charge. Says it all really.
Now I really feel sorry for her.
Interesting that a male high school teacher would be staying in close contact with a female ex-student. !!
I wonder what the side benefits were.
Now, now, let’s not get into that sort of thing. He could just be a deeply committed activist with the most innocent of motives!
If so, he would be the first.
Sadly, Matilda Lane-Rose is but one among several million (at least) young people that got snookered by the “catastrophic climate change” meme due to lack of adult guidance to show them the difference between truth and falsehood.
To their own detriment, they didn’t even bother to follow advice readily available to them over the Internet/Web and in a variety of books. As one example, there is this:
“Test all things; hold fast what is good.”
— Bible, Thessalonians 5:21 (NKJV)
Doesn’t surprise me at all. I was a teacher in Melbourne just as the progressive education reform movement got under way – inspired by the Whitlam years. Even did the infamous Course C in my Dip. Ed at La Trobe. (Illich, Frere et al). Basically, teachers just started teaching their own obsessions and opinions – global cooling (remember that?), left politics, and so on. Out went ‘traditional’ and ‘transmission’ education and in came collaborative learning, discovery and relevance. What’s the mystery?
Matilda Lane-Rose, looking off to the horizon, similar to Leah Stokes.
That practiced look is apparently indicative of ‘Societal Leech Syndrome’.
SLS has recently been posited as actually being a hereditary disease. If both parents are carriers, the offspring has a 50% chance of being impacted by the disease. The disease may manifest at anytime in life, but it usually shows up before the age of 25.
Early onset symptoms (although not always indicative) include: sleeping until after 11:00 am more than 2 days a week; staring off towards the horizon in an effort to appear smart and sensitive; spending more effort getting others to do thing than actually doing things themselves; using pseudonyms such as Izaak or elernerigc.
. . . and this hereditary disease is growing at a rate sure to exceed the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One symptom that you didn’t mention, but is cause for immediate treatment if it’s not too late, is the stated belief that “The Government is gonna take real good care of me, especially by cancelling out all my debts”.
one dumb kid followed another dumb kid and somehow someone else should feel bad.
i volunteer!
i feel bad for anyone named mitilda
It isn’t the dumb kids I’m criticising, it’s the adult enablers who deserve our scorn.
That’s a thoughtful angle, Eric, to consider how this activist was formed by the ultra-“progressive” indoctrination embedded into Australia’s education system (in particular)(which has been investigated by Tony Thomas (Australian journalist, work appears in conservative Australian online magazine Quadrant)).
On the other hand, even with the pervasive indoctrination in Australian schools, most kids don’t end up as rabid extremists like this one. They just become sappy moralising gen-Zs.
“Ultimately, Lane-Rose still believes her action was justified.
“I can go to bed at night and feel sound with my decision,” she said.”
This is always the puzzler–no matter what…’I’m right, and there is nothing that can change my mind!‘ What causes this, that undeveloped frontal lobe?
(Think I’ll go have another look at Mann’s forehead.)
She’ll be able to go to bed at night in her shared cell and feel sound in her decision amongst her fellow inmates. I wish her all the best.
Most mass murders also go to bed with a clean conscience.
Feeling that you are righteous so that anything you do is justified, is usually considered a mental condition.
So we send kids to school to learn that humans are destroying the environment with their dreaded CO2.
And when these kids have learned what we teach them, they go into the world and valiantly try to save the planet.
Then due to their “courageous” actions, we want to charge them and throw them in jail.
Anybody see a problem here? She’s doing what we trained her to do!
She should sue the government and their schools for lying to her and propagandizing her about a false problem and an equally false solution.
Let’s put the blame squarely where it belongs.
Absolutely she is doing what she was trained to do. But not every kid who receives such training grows up into a climate radical, so Matilda still needs to accept responsibility for her actions.
Ah–thus fulfils a prophecy from many years ago–they’ll be Waltzing Matilda off to jail.