I did go along to the protest in Melbourne this morning along with about another 500-600 souls. The biggest difference for me in comparison to the last time I had gone to protest something or other was that I happened to be wearing a suit and was hardly the only one thusly attired. I see from Andrew Bolt that we have been abused for our temerity in opposing such a tax but if anything, it is almost the other way round.
We are so used to incompetence in government, I think, and are so used to governments wasting our potential that there is a kind of so what about it all. Even though this is the big one, with a potential to hammerlock the Australian economy into a low growth trajectory for decades on end, there really wasn’t the outrage that it deserves.
I think it is just too complex. On the one side, you have all of these wonderful people out to save humankind from rising oceans and endless heat. On the other side, there we are, we poor tillers of the fields and hewers of water who would like the Government to show a bit of common sense. To charge down such a blind alley, without a clue where we will be five or ten years out if this tax is introduced – a tax that devastates our electricity generating capacity and drives productive activity offshore – without really looking at all of the options and looking at all of the potential for disaster, is unbelievable.
Such middle class tax revolts are really not in our nature. These sorts of things really are the province of the left since if my personal attitude is any guide, there is no catharsis, no transcendence in such strolls down Bourke Street to listen to a bunch of speakers at Parliament House say the things we already know.
What is really clear, however, is what the polling must show. The Government is willing to take whatever heat it gets about straight out lying because they know something about how voting intentions will be affected by this carbon tax. You can see that the same polling results have been picked up by the Coalition since they are being so careful about how they approach this entire issue. And these are not just polls as in opinion of the person in the street, but are no doubt the result of market researcher focus groups where different arguments and approaches are tried out. In the end, our fellow citizens want something done about climate change, lemmings though they may be, and come hell or high water they are going to get it.
Well, bad luck to them, but worse it is bad luck to me. My wife picked up something from a shop this morning and when she said how surprised she was at the way the price had jumped, the woman who is a friend of hers said that she had just paid a $500 electricity bill. Well, she hasn’t seen anything yet, nor have the rest of us either. Saving the planet comes at a price. I only wish we actually were doing some good but perhaps we are. As industries drift off from Australia towards various third world economies they will begin to prosper as we go down the chute. They will also use carbon based fuels to the utmost extent since you may believe they will not lift a finger to reduce their carbon footprint if that is the cheapest way to produce. But we will and we are being encouraged by them to do just that.
What fools we are! How they must laugh!
The rallies were and are a really dumb idea. You will never match the vast army of unemployed hippies, students and various other bussed-in unionists and full-time deadbeats that have constituted the standing zombie army of the Labor/left for 40 years. And you KNOW the media are out to push the Giffords-like ‘extremist’ narrative – something easy to do given that every crowd attracts a few idiots who roll up with obscene banners and a bad attitude.
C.L.
23 Mar 11 at 6:20 pm
To charge down such a blind alley, without a clue where we will be five or ten years out if this tax is introduced – a tax that devastates our electricity generating capacity and drives productive activity offshore – without really looking at all of the options and looking at all of the potential for disaster, is unbelievable.
Assuming this catastrophic outcome wouldn’t it be more surprising if the policy was actually sensible seeing the extent to which both sides in this debate have strived to set new records of unreason?
Adrien
23 Mar 11 at 6:25 pm
Yes but arent any of that, never have been never will be so the rest is just another self indulgent wank.
rog
23 Mar 11 at 6:35 pm
Both sides?
Nominate one utterance that competes with Bob Brown’s claim that coal mines caused the floods or Julia Gillard’s belief that a tax will cool the planet.
C.L.
23 Mar 11 at 6:36 pm
First time I have ever agreed with you. Yes, you are a fool.
hc
23 Mar 11 at 6:36 pm
The rallies were and are a really dumb idea.
Totally agree. Protests are a left-wing strategy and as CL says, they do it well. They have massive protest infrastructure.
You need organisations to tap into, that can mobilise crowds fast and efficiently. What’s the right got? Rotary?
daddy dave
23 Mar 11 at 6:36 pm
Just shows you what community angst there must be to get right wingers protesting.
Personally I’d rather get stuck on a submarine with Kevin Rudd and Ivan Milat than protest in public.
Infidel Tiger
23 Mar 11 at 6:43 pm
Steve, Not sure about your comments about polling. If labor sees survival in their focus groups at present, then it may be due to the operatives delivering confirmation bias. I can’t see how the focus groups which, in addition to poor opinion polling caused Rudd’s fall would now show sufficiently solid 180 degree support.
In any case, we have a real poll coming up on Saturday, and I’m sure the parties will be taking an interest in the exit polling.
The inevitable blood-letting within the labor machinery in NSW could leave Gillard with zero support there. The snubbing of the Premier’s campaign launch indicates this may have begun already.
No Worries
23 Mar 11 at 6:47 pm
First time I have ever agreed with you. Yes, you are a fool.
Academic collegiality.
dover_beach
23 Mar 11 at 6:49 pm
You have to trust the system to some degree. If you’re convinced that a particular government is utterly incompetent, then unless the system is broken, they won’t survive long.
daddy dave
23 Mar 11 at 6:54 pm
Nominate one utterance that competes with Bob Brown’s claim that coal mines caused the floods or Julia Gillard’s belief that a tax will cool the planet.
What for?
Adrien
23 Mar 11 at 7:26 pm
CL the idea of rallies is to raise profile. Size only matters to lefties, whose favourite debating point is “everyone believes this”, or “no one disagrees”. This has usually been effective, but powerless to convince people of an issue’s merits.
If nothing else, a rally sends a signal to many that hey, it’s okay to actually question and rebuke the government, and those “extremists” look just like us. If it was about numbers then you would never hold a rally mid week unless it’s uni vacation on issues with child appeal.
The really interesting part, is that a single issue could motivate such a response in people who by and large, have never attended a rally in their life, and in the space of a few weeks, and they funded themselves.
No Worries
23 Mar 11 at 7:28 pm
Size only matters to lefties
No it only matters to politicians. And it only matters if they can’t see the edge of the crowd and then it doesn’t matter that much. When the Melb CBD filled up in protest against the Iraq War all it did was make Howard adopt a more respectful tone when speaking of dissent.
The only protest that works is persistent, intelligent strategy that perpetually gains media attention and causes headaches. That’s very hard to do and requires a lot of commitment. Try the Skye Bridge protest in Scotland, took years, everyone was arrested. They won. Finally.
Adrien
23 Mar 11 at 7:31 pm
You’ll all seem to have missed the enormous conservative middle class Tea party protests in the US that culminated in the biggest state / federal electorate slaughtering in that country…ever.
They started off embarrassingly small and awkward, being written of as racists, rednecks, extremists, etc. The idea that such a movement could ignite here has the left absolutely terrified and it shows.
It’s not going to happen here soon though, well not yet anyway. Maybe in four or five years if things continue.
Aussies tend to just grumble a lot then go and vote. Then again we’re not really accustomed to the nasty, vicious fringe left being in control of the government.
Personally I think it shows that the left in their usual projecting way assume that because they copy everything wholesale from the US left, so does (what they call) the Australian right, meaning the average Australian.
They have no idea of what’s in the mind of the average Australian.
twostix
23 Mar 11 at 8:39 pm
They started off embarrassingly small and awkward, being written of as racists, rednecks, extremists, etc. The idea that such a movement could ignite here has the left absolutely terrified and it shows.
And as JC has pointed out they’re making the same mistakes that the US lefties made: trying to brand them as extremists, saying they should be denied media attention, calling them artificial ‘astroturf’, and claiming they don’t even nearly represent the mainstream.
I really, really hope TEh Left keep doing that here, because Aussies hate smart arses more than the Yanks.
Michael Sutcliffe
23 Mar 11 at 9:55 pm
We area heading for a totally regulated economy using the idea of carbon pollution to scare the mob into compliance. I have listened to otherwise intelligent people opine that companies should be greener than they are. Obviously market research confirms that the bulk of the population will accept a tax and so it will happen.
Some of us foresaw this some time ago and have prepared for this eventuality but the rest will pay for it – literally.
The Fabian experiment is close to completion.
Louis Hissink
24 Mar 11 at 10:12 am
(Don’t publish this bit – with respect, its drawers of water. You hew wood.) Otherwise I entirely agree there are too many messages and too many speakers. What got the most response at the small Perth rally was the PM’s broken promise, the economic effect on peoples livelihoods and the absolutely nil environmental effect. Three to focus on, with universal appeal and concrete life examples. Maximum three speakers, one on each message, with short, clear, fact based messages on the point. No hate speech or chanting, just clapping and cheering in support of points made. I’d rather have teeth pulled than protest in public, but I went along. People like me don’t do public outrage well, but if they are turning out at all, they are worried. You can’t just do nothing. The anti-Australia Card rallies in the 80′s started with a couple of dozen people and ended up with 30,000 in the Perth protest 3 months later. And they ended up with high profile representatives of the whole political spectrum (including Peter Garrett if I remember correctly) signed on. Give it time.
Cath
24 Mar 11 at 12:30 pm
It’s really depressing how otherwise intelligent people are buying into this mystical green horseshit.
daddy dave
24 Mar 11 at 1:01 pm
Isn’t it.
A decent recession will knock some serious sense in the people here.
JC
24 Mar 11 at 1:04 pm
Cath
I was aware that I conflated three different expressions: hewers of wood and drawers of water, plus tillers of the earth which was further conflated with lilies of the field. I just thought I might mix them up sort of in honour of our Prime Minister’s belated recognition of the importance of a good Biblical education. I wouldn’t have mentioned it myself except that you commented for which I am very grateful.
Steve Kates
24 Mar 11 at 1:12 pm
Oh dear, my humour bypass is showing, too subtle for me; I’m more the pie in the face/whoopee cushion sort of gal. However, in my favour, I did wonder if you meant “ewers of water” … does this redeem me somewhat? Thankyou for your most courteous reply!
Cath
24 Mar 11 at 4:33 pm