Authorities need to crack down on these two Extinction Rebellion protectors who boarded an oil rig yesterday. Unless they do, we’re just going to see more of this dangerous behaviour.

The latest case, honestly, takes the cake for stupidity. A pair of clowns, Nick Hanafin and Siana Fitzjohn, decided to stage a protest yesterday on an oil rig in the Marlborough sounds. They mustn’t have checked the weather.

So they got up the side attached to an anchor line and refused to be move. But then the weather turned, one of them got hypothermic, and - you guess it - they had to be rescued.

Had to spend the night on the rig. Had to eat the food of the company they were protesting against. Had to use the medical of the company they were protesting against.

The pair went on with 14 days’ food but didn’t even last the night.

They wanted to “expose OMV's climate destroying operations in New Zealand”. They only exposed what idiots they are.

They wanted to show that “a bunch of ordinary Kiwis can stand up to one of the biggest oil companies in the world.” They couldn’t even stand up to the weather.

Authorities have to prosecute these two. Hanafin is a repeat offender. He was one of those who climbed 20 storeys up the Majestic Tower in Wellington last year. He also illegally boarded an oil and gas boat in Taranaki last year and ended up with a piddly $750 fine

There is legislation that can be used to slam them.

The Crown Minerals Act is a possibility, for interfering with the operations of an exploratory vessel.Health and safety law maybe. Police might be able to go them for trespassing.

Unless they get dealt to properly, this is just going to carry on. Because this kind of protest is ramping up around the world.

Extinction Rebellion deliberately breaks laws. These are the hand-gluers who crowd banks and attach themselves to trains and lie in the middle of the road. They’re driving governments and citizens crazy from Wellington to Melbourne to London.

Hit them with the law, give them some consequences, otherwise they’ll just carry on with dangerous and expensive nonsense protests.