When busloads of people descended on Canberra to protest against the carbon tax in March, signs in the crowd said “Juliar” was “Bob Brown’s bitch”. They said they wanted to “ditch the witch” and told Labor they wanted to “shove the tax up your ass”.
.
I was there. The protesters were mad as hell and they weren’t going to take it anymore. And boy, were they loud about it.
The entire crowd would erupt in spontaneous chanting of “Liar! Liar! Liar!” Some protesters got stuck into a few young people for looking like “GetUp spies”. A few extremists handed out pamphlets blaming the Queen and the British Empire for the carbon tax.
The March rally didn’t really help the protesters’ cause. Afterwards, all the media discussed about the rally were whether these people were extremists, if they were some kind of Australian Tea Party and if they were making Australian political discourse an angrier arena than ever.
This morning it sounded like the organisers had learnt their lesson.
They put a gigantic banner behind the stage so no one could place an offensive sign behind Tony Abbott. They said the rally wouldn’t be as inflammatory. It wouldn’t seem as angry.
So who did they get to MC the rally?
ANGRY. ANDERSON. Angry isn’t even his middle name, it’s his FIRST name. Anderson screamed about how democracy was dead. Oversized coffin prop and all. All because the government is introducing a tax on pollution.
Australians are generally a reasonable people. A lot of people don’t like the carbon tax. Plenty don’t like the fact that the Prime Minister was not particularly honest about it before the last election.
That’s fair enough. If they don’t like it, they can and should protest about it.
But if these rallies were really ever going to win over the Australian people, what they should’ve done is, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “speak softly and carry a big stick”. Not just rage.
And when you look closely, it’s interesting to see just who is speaking softly behind the scenes of these rallies.
The Tea Party in the United States is known for its links to established political figures. The “no carbon tax” movement is no different.
The SA Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi is behind the organisation “CanDo” (or the Conservative Action Network Do), a sort of Facebook for conservatives that has been involved in organising the protests.
He’s also behind a prominent conservative blog that helped bring together the coalition of small groups that are rallying against the carbon tax.
Bernardi denies he does much more than support the groups with infrastructure. But in light of the fact he’s the personal parliamentary secretary to Tony Abbott, it sure looks like he’s had a big stake in building up the movement against the Gillard government.
That’s not to say the protests are entirely propped up by politicians. They’re not.
The rallies were largely organised by a couple of ex-builders from Sydney’s western suburbs. Chris Johnson and Jacques Laxale of the so-called “Consumers and Taxpayers Association” lost thousands of dollars to the government’s bungled Green Loans scheme.
They’d been looking to make an extra buck or two. But they found they’d wasted a big chunk of their savings getting accreditation to work as home assessors under the scheme when the government pulled the plug on it.
They’re angry because they lost money and because they don’t think the Labor government is responsible with its finances. That’s fair enough.
But they’re not speaking softly. They’re just smacking the government with their big stick.
And the thing about hitting things with sticks is that they’re a pretty juvenile weapon to use. Generally they break.
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RT @toplitigator: @farrm51 Very difficult to believe the excitment of 'Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Scheme' website doesn't have ppl all over it.
RT @toplitigator: @farrm51 As for the 'Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping' website, just how do you contain your excitement?
RT @lynlinking: @farrm51 Well the links should be posted on Twitter more, by people that care about the Government. Perhaps the MSM could help cheers lyn
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