A Sydney climate protester who halted freight trains by suspending herself above a rail line has had her most serious charges dropped after agreeing to a plea deal, her lawyer says.
Emma Dorge was arrested in March after participating in one of a series of unauthorised actions by environmental protest group Blockade Australia to disrupt a freight line to Port Botany.
The 26-year-old was arrested after she suspended herself from a pole above the line to draw attention to climate change.
Police charged the activist on four counts including endangering safety of a person on a railway, inciting others to commit a criminal act, remaining on private land without a lawful excuse and refusing to comply with police directions.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the more serious charges of endangering safety and incitement given the activist pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges, Dorge's lawyer Mark Davis told AAP.
Before her hearing on Wednesday in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, Dorge told AAP she stood by her actions in April and believed the NSW government had passed the "draconian" protest laws as a result of how effective the campaigns were.
"I'm really more concerned about runaway climate change. They can't throw the floods and the wildfires in jail," she said.
"The courts are just another kind of violent mechanism that the state uses to repress us."
Dorge is among a number of climate activists who have faced court this week charged over disruptive actions after the state government passed laws to punish disruptive climate protests earlier in the year.
Activists convicted under the laws face fines of up to $22,000 and two years in prison.
The construction workers' union has announced it will campaign to end the "anti-democratic" laws that criminalise protest in NSW.
"The CFMMEU will not sit by while any government in this country seeks to remove one of the cornerstones of our democracy," union national secretary Christy Cain said in a statement.
"If these laws are allowed to stand no worker, no citizen, no member of the community will be safe from the threat of government overreach."
Dorge's action went viral after Seven Network's Sunrise host David Koch suggested authorities cut the rope while she was suspended from the pole during a live interview.
The case has been adjourned to December 22 and Dorge is out on bail.
Australian Associated Press
