Gifts of love and solidarity for Violet CoCo were placed under aΒ Christmas tree here on December 11.
And forΒ Queensland Premier Annastasia Palaszczuk, Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt and New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet, lumps of coal for their unabashed support for coal and gas magnates while criminalising peaceful climate protest.
Santa Claus made a surprise appearance, saying: βLike Violet, I bring hope to children while heralding major traffic disruption."
βKids used to ask me for toys,β Santa said, adding:Β βThese days they ask for a planet thatβs fit to live on.
βThere are many more Violets in waiting. Your leaders want to lock them up as this climate crisis deepens, so their fossil fuel bosses can keep engorging themselves on their riches. And you donβt live as long as me without knowing that itβs only through protest and civil disobedience that so many basic rights have been won.
βSo, this year in every child's stocking I'm giving a real gift of hope β a photo of Violet CoCo stopping traffic and a megaphone for taking to the streets together.β
Violet Coco will spend Christmas behind bars after she was sentenced last week to 15 months jail with an 8 month non-parole period under draconian new NSW laws targeted at non-violent climate protest.
The sentence has drawn international condemnation, including fromΒ the United Nations Special Rapporteur.
Similar anti-protest laws have recently been enacted in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.
Meanwhile, Pitt pressed for charges against nine elderly climate protesters who chanted βStop coal, stop gasβ inside Queensland parliament last week. The charges carry potential jail terms and have not been used since the days of Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.