Sydney, Australia – A Rising Tide activist was dragged from the Australian Financial Review Asia Summit after interrupting a Q&A session with ANZ CEO Nuno Matos.

Zack Schofield interrupted Matos’s opening remarks by taking the stage and criticizing ANZ for being the only bank not to rule out funding the North East Australia Pipeline, which would enable large-scale fracking of the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory.

Schofield sarcastically addressed the room, saying, “I feel compelled to raise a toast to Nuno Matos, the man who is the CEO of ANZ. The only man with the courage to fund the NEA Pipeline and unlock fracking in the Beetaloo Basin. We all want to destroy the planet, but Nuno’s found a way to make a buck out of it. Isn’t that great! There’s only one planet and Nuno’s found a way to destroy it and make some profit.”

Security then removed Schofield from the stage. After the moderator apologized, Matos responded, “No worries, it’s part of the job.”

Schofield later said, “We’re staring down the barrel of an unprecedented El Nino off the back of a devastating Northern Hemisphere Summer. ANZ says it takes the climate crisis seriously, yet it won’t rule out enabling destructive new mega-projects which are driving the crisis.”

He also said people in the Territory had been fighting Beetaloo for years and that the issue depended on whether banks such as ANZ would fund infrastructure like the pipeline.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download