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Greens MP and environmental activist, Ian Cohen may lose his home and have to file for bankruptcy after a court hearing went against him earlier this week. Cohen was ordered to pay legal costs of over one million dollars by to Byron Bay property developer Jerry Bennette by the High Court of Australia. |
Greens MP and environmental activist, Ian Cohen may lose his home and have to file for bankruptcy after a court hearing went against him earlier this week. Cohen was ordered to pay legal costs of over one million dollars by to Byron Bay property developer Jerry Bennette by the High Court of Australia.
Cohen allegedly referred to Bennette as a “bully” and a “thug” at a 2001 fundraiser. The fundraiser was being held to raise money for one of Cohen’s own friends who was being sued by Mr Bennette at the time.
Originally Cohen was ordered to pay $15,000. In 2007 the NSW Supreme Court reversed the decision and ordered Bennette to pay Cohen’s expenses. Bennette took the matter to the High Court who found Cohen at fault and lumped him with the final bill.
“I feel that the decision has put a very high price on sticking up for your mates and your community,” Cohen said afterwards.
“I said a few words in defence of a friend who was being sued and who faced losing his home – the stress later led to his family breaking up. It was an inconsequential, unprepared speech. If you’ve listened to Parliament or players at a football or cricket match, you would realise that what I said was tame by comparison,” he said.
Tracks readers will remember Ian Cohen as the protestor who surfed the bow of a nuclear-armed American warship when it sailed into Sydney Harbour in 1986.
Cohen has been a pioneering environmental and social justice activist since 1980 and is the author of Green Fire. In 1995 he became the first Green member of the NSW Legislative Council; he was elected to a second term in 2003.
Cohen lives in the Broken Head region of northern NSW and remains a keen surfer. Spare him a wave and a kind word next time you see him. Or, if you’re a property developer concerned about the thuggish reputation of your profession, maybe you could pare him a loose mill.
– Kirk Owers
