Kristen Morrissey, Joana Partyka and Emil Davey: Disrupt Burrup Hub activists sentenced over Woodside stunt

Climate activists who triggered the mass evacuation of Woodside’s Perth headquarters with stench gas — forcing several people to seek medical help including a pregnant woman — have described the stunt as a “harmless prank”. Kristen Morrissey, Joana Partyka and Emil Davey each managed to avoid serving jail time for their roles in the June 2023 mass disruption, which forced more than 1000 workers in the 29-storey building to evacuate onto the street. During their sentencing on Wednesday morning, the District Court of WA was told the trio’s actions on June 1 had caused a state of emergency that left many workers fearful of a major explosion or fire, and took up the resources of dozens of first responders. At the time of the disruption, which Partyka, 40, later described as having gone perfectly to “plan”, Morrissey, 51, went into the Mount Street building wearing office attire covering her Disrupt Burrup Hub t-shirt and walked around emitting ethyl mercaptan — used as an emergency alert in underground mining where visual warnings can be ineffective — from a canister. The noxious gas is also added to otherwise odourless natural gas so leaks can be detected. The court on Wednesday was also told Davey, 23, then videoed Morrissey yelling “How does it feel to have gas shoved in your face? as Woodside staff spilled out of the building to escape the overwhelming fumes. While the 51-year-old admits her role in the incident, she disputes that she taunted any workers purposefully and that her words were not intended to harm anyone. Due to the stunt, which caused a major emergency response and required the attendance of police, firefighters, the bomb squad, the Tactical Response Group, the Regional Operations Group and ChemCentre experts, 22 evacuees suffered headaches, nausea and other minor symptoms, with seven of those reporting ill-effects persisting for several days. “It (the gas) is not harmful when used as intended ... however, it can be toxic when inhaled in high concentrations,” Judge Hayley Cormann said, describing their actions — albeit altruistic — as a forthright defiance of the law. “That scenario can easily transform to chaos and to serious harm. “It was clearly not a drill and created stress and anxiety. “Each of you clearly intended to create alarm or concern.” Some evacuees later told authorities they were suffering from sore throats, dry coughs, chest pain, dizziness and breathing discomfort, with one asthmatic woman saying her medication was not helping. A statement was also taken from one employee who was pregnant, who was concerned enough about the toxic levels of gas she’d been exposed to to seek medical care, over fears there could be an adverse effect on her baby. “Some police officers who attended the scene were also reported later to have suffered headaches and nausea,” Judge Cormann said. She added, however, that she did not believe the group had intended to cause physical harm to any of the evacuees or was driven by a malicious or reckless desire. “I accept that your offending is motivated by desire to bring attention to the environmental cause to which you are committed,” Judge Cormann said, adding that just because a person is driven by altruistic motives did not mean they should not be held accountable by the law. She sentenced Morrissey, who is charged with one count each of creating a false belief and causing poison to be administered, to a total of 11 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. Partyka was sentenced to seven months, suspended for 12 months, for one count of creating a false belief. Davey, charged with the same single offence as Partyka, escaped a term of imprisonment entirely due to his lesser involvement and his younger age, and was instead placed on a six-month-long community based order and 50 hours of volunteer work. Outside court Davey described the trio’s stunt as a “harmless prank” and that Woodside was delivering a death sentence to his future as a young person. “The Burrup Hub is six billion tons of C02 and they’re trying to tell us that that’s all fine. It’s the biggest fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere and we need to stop this to protect the planet to and protect future generations. “The climate crisis is already having a detrimental effect all across the globe. Wildfires, floods ... people are dying because of the climate crisis right now and this is because projects like the Burrup Hub ... are still going ahead and getting extended out to 2070.” Partyka claimed the judge had “characterised” the group as “too privileged and too educated to be conducting these kinds of activities” — “but in fact, I would say that as people of privilege it’s our duty to call out Woodside for the destruction of climate and culture”. Morrissey added: “We never intended to hurt anybody, all we’re doing is sounding the alarm.” “What we are facing is an existential threat,” she said.