We have taken time to reflect on our actions after the Tasmanian Electoral Commission ordered us to remove our video claiming it breached the Electoral Act, and decided to make amends by editing the video to compy with Tasmania's laws. We hope we can still be allowed to visit #Tassie some day
"No doubt she will learn a lesson from her imprisonment," Magistrate Webster said. (not specifying what that lesson could possibly be)
In an impassioned speech, Harmsen referred to herself as a "peaceful forest protester".
"The reason I commit these offences [is] because I am terrified of the worsening climate crisis. I am not a menace to society, yet here I am facing a jail term," she said.
"I am not giving a finger to the entire judicial system, I am standing up for the forests, for takayna, a safer planet and if that makes me a dangerous criminal then I think we are going to need bigger prisons.
"I am not thumbing my nose up to the judicial system, I am standing up to the system because it is failing our environment and it is negatively impacting human life."
It is the first time an environmental activist has been sentenced to jail time in Tasmania in more than a decade.
ABC