A 17-year-old from Newcastle has been arrested and charged after allegedly vandalising Premier Chris Minns' office in protest of a Hunter coal mine extension.
NSW Police were called to a building on Regent Street, Kogarah just before 3.30pm on Tuesday May 19 to reports of alleged malicious damage.
Officers found windows of the building were allegedly marked with graffiti, and established a crime scene.
A statement by climate activist group Rising Tide said the Newcastle teenager had written "STOP HVO" in chalk on the windows of Chris Minns' electorate office in Kogarah, apparently referring to the proposed Hunter Valley Operations coal mine extension.
Hunter Valley Operations, a partnership between Glencore and Yancoal, last year proposed continuing its operations 24 kilometres northwest of Singleton at its north pit until 2045, and at the south pit until 2042.
Original plans would have kept the north mine open until 2050 and the south site until 2045.
The statement from Rising Tide said the teenager attempted to hand himself in at Waratah police station on Tuesday afternoon but police declined to arrest him.
The teen was then arrested at Belmont police station and charged with possessing a graffiti implement with intent and intentionally marking a premises without prescribed consent, police said in a statement.
The 17-year-old boy was due to appear before Sutherland Children's Court in Sydney on Wednesday June 3.
