Well-known anti-Woodside activist Jesse Noakes has pleaded not guilty to failing to obey a data access order after WA police seized his laptop and phone.

June 21, 2023

A prominent anti-gas campaigner will fight a police charge for allegedly failing to give detectives access to his computer and phone.

Jesse Sandover Noakes, 34, pleaded not guilty in Perth Magistrates Court on Wednesday to disobeying a data access order on May 12.

“I have valid reasons not to hand over my devices to the Western Australian police,” he said outside court after a brief hearing.

“As an advocate, campaigner, writer and broadcaster I work with vulnerable communities on sensitive stories and my priority is to protect my sources.

“So I am totally unable to give WA police access to my contacts and confidential material.”

Noakes said he had been a “thorn in the side” of the WA government for a long time and he was surprised it had taken police so long to come for his phone and laptop.

Human Rights Watch researcher Sophie McNeill said activists should challenge police data access orders.

“Climate activists and campaigners are being increasingly and disproportionately subjected to vindictive legal action by Australian authorities,” she said.

“This police overreach needs to be called out.”

Noakes, who was released on bail, will contest the data access charge in the same court on November 6 during a one-day hearing.

The court on Wednesday also heard Noakes has been charged with aggravated burglary with intent.

It’s understood to relate to a protest at Woodside Energy’s annual general meeting in Perth on April 28.

Noakes was allegedly armed with a dangerous or offensive instrument during the incident but he vehemently denied this outside court.

“The only instruments I was armed with on the day in question were my phone and laptop,” he said.

“If the authorities consider them dangerous I suppose I should be flattered.”

Noakes was not required to enter a plea on Wednesday and no further details about the incident were heard.

Two other activists have also been previously charged with aggravated burglary with intent on the same day after they allegedly unlawfully entered a building where the Woodside meeting was being held.

Activist group Disrupt Burrup Hub has previously said the pair attempted to evacuate the building using non-toxic stench gas and smoke flares.

The group has called for industrial development on the Burrup Peninsula – about 30 kilometres west of Karratha in the Pilbara region – to be stopped, including Woodside Energy’s expansion of the Pluto gas plant.

It’s been involved in a series of high-profile protests against Woodside in recent months, including defacing Frederick McCubbin’s famous work Down On His Luck at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

The Burrup Peninsula, known as Murujuga to traditional owners, contains the largest and oldest collection of petroglyphs in the world.

Noakes’ burglary charge was adjourned to Perth Magistrates Court on July 31 for a committal mention, when the two other people facing the same charge are also scheduled to appear.