Fourteen Extinction Rebellion protesters accused of interrupting Queensland parliament by chanting climate change slogans have had their court hearing delayed by a dispute over which law had allegedly been broken.
On November 30 last year, the protesters allegedly used a balcony that overlooks the chamber to unfurl banners demanding an end to fossil fuel use.
Their chants of "stop coal! stop gas!" forced MPs to suspend parliamentary proceedings for three minutes and the defendants now face up to three years jail if convicted.
Fellow Extinction Rebellion members gathered outside Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday to support the defendants and repeated the chants that were allegedly used to disrupt parliament.
The 14 defendants had been due to face a hearing on one charge each of disrupting the legislature and two of the defendants also faced a charge of failing to comply with a direction.
However, Magistrate Joseph Pinder told the defence and prosecutors that he would not put all 14 defendants on trial at once.
Mr Pinder said there had been no application to hear all the charges together and it "reflects rather poorly on the prosecution and defence" that both parties had tried to proceed without such an order.
The barrister for the defendants, Andrew Hoare, said there had been an application for a joint trial in May but Mr Pinder said there was no record of such an order.
Mr Pinder said each defendant should be tried separately and one of their hearings should start on Monday.
Lee Ann Geraghty Coaldrake, a former medical practitioner and wife of former Queensland University of Technology Vice-Chancellor Peter Coaldrake, proceeded to plead not guilty to one charge of disrupting the legislature.
Coaldrake's hearing did not go ahead as police prosecutor Martin Payne presented a written submission over which section of Queensland's laws was in effect at the time of the protest in parliament following amendments to legislation in 2012.
Mr Hoare said there was "no ambiguity" over which section of the law was involved.
Mr Pinder said the issue was "reasonably technical" and said both parties should provide further written submissions within five days and adjourned Coaldrake's hearing to a date to be fixed.
The other 13 defendants were scheduled to have their cases mentioned on November 13 and all defendants had their bail continued.
The Extinction Rebellion group hailed the defendants as "climate heroes" as they left the court building.
Speaking outside court, Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Violet CoCo said the disrupting parliament charges were "an atrocity to our democracy" and were being used to excessively punish the defendants.
"The pursuit of these protesters with these draconian laws that were brought in during the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era are about repressing the voice of these people who spoke up about the climate and ecological emergency," Ms CoCo said.
