From the archives: the 1996 Parliament House Riot

25 March, 2011 by

What is it with the Left and violence? Listening the Gillard, Combet, Brown and their ilk over the past day or so, you would think that the carbon tax protesters, mainly honest, hardworking Australians angry at the contempt shown to them by the Labor government, were a bunch of dangerous, radical extremists. And that is precisely what you are supposed to think. The Labor/Green smear machine works very well, with the help of the compliant ABC and Fairfax, spreading innuendo and bile to discredit anyone who dares criticise a Labor policy. But again, people have very short memories.

The 1996 Parliament House riot was flagged by a commenter, and a little research shows that the union thugs were a far uglier bunch than anything the carbon tax protesters could compete with (from Wikipedia) – and just look whose name crops up:

The Australian Council of Trade Unions called the “cavalcade to Canberra” rally to protest against the industrial relations reform agenda of the Liberal–National Coalition Howard Government. The protest began with senior Australian Trade Union officials including ACTU President Jennie George and Assistant Secretary Greg Combet, as well as senior members of the Australian Labor Party. The initially peaceful protest deteriorated into violent action when a new group or demonstrators arrived in the early afternoon and attacked the entrance to Parliament. Around 90 personnel were injured —including lacerations, sprains, and head and eye injuries. Damage to the forecourt and foyer of Parliament was initially estimated at $75,000 and the Parliamentary shop was looted. Nine rioters were arrested and charged with a variety of offences. (source)

Read also the graphic description of the violence:

[T]his group refused to accept police direction, forced a breach in police lines and ran towards the main front entrance of Parliament House. Unfortunately, it was apparent that some of these demonstrators were affected by alcohol. This group was supported by participants from the more general demonstration who were incited to join those involved in riotous conduct by a speaker from the official platform.

Police formed a protective line along the perimeter of the Great Verandah which was subsequently forced back to the main doors. The police line was withdrawn from this area due to the level of violence being experienced by officers and was redeployed to an area inside the front doors in support of parliamentary security personnel. This deployment stabilised the situation for a short period. However, demonstrators using increasing force broke through the first line of doors.

Once inside this area, demonstrators used weapons, including a large hammer, a wheel brace, a steel trolley and a stanchion torn from the external doors to break open the internal doors. Simultaneously, a second group of demonstrators used other weapons to break into the Parliament House shop, but were held at the internal doors. The shop was ransacked by demonstrators and major damage was caused by persons who subsequently occupied the area. After some two hours, the demonstrators were finally repelled from Parliament House and driven back onto the forecourt area and, shortly afterwards, they dispersed.

In addition to the events which took place at the front entrance to the building, incidents also occurred on the Members Terrace, the roof of the Great Verandah and the Queens Terrace. There were 197 Australian Federal Police on duty at the start of the demonstration, in addition to the Australian Protective Service officers and parliamentary security personnel. A further 60 Australian Federal Police reinforcements were called out under established contingency plans.

Michael Smith of 2UE has footage of the news reports, which I have uploaded to YouTube for a wider audience. Just look at the disgraceful scenes shown here, and compare with the politeness and respect (barring a few inappropriate placards) on show at the Carbon Tax rally (and we also get to see Combet and Bob Brown plying their trade):

Just one word from this: hypocrisy.

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From billionaires to bogans: the Carbon Tax rally on Twitter

24 March, 2011 by

Tim Blair links to a wonderful collection of tweets about the Carbon Tax rally, like this one:

Billion airs?

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Left smears carbon tax protesters as "extremists"

24 March, 2011 by

Hey Bob, where's your apology for this? (photo via Bolt)

A favourite trick of the Left – brand your opponents as “extremists” and then you can avoid actually engaging with their arguments. Thousands of ordinary Australians protested in Canberra yesterday, angry at being lied to by Julia Gillard before the election about her policy for a carbon tax. But the Left’s smear machine is in full swing this morning, rubbishing the genuine concerns of ordinary people:

Labor backbencher Nick Champion says the protesters are extremists.

NICK CHAMPION: A rally that has all the credibility of a Dungeons and Dragons convention – full of fantasists, full of people who think we can just avoid this problem – and we can’t.

It’s a serious problem. The world has to deal with it and Australia has to do our part.

REPORTER: Does that mean you think that they’re extremists, the people at this rally?

NICK CHAMPION: Yes.

SABRA LANE: Labor MP, Michelle Rowland:

MICHELLE ROWLAND: Some of these people, you objectively analyse their positions and they are extreme. They are extreme. (source)

She said it twice just in case you didn’t get it the first time. Greg Combet also used the word “extremists”:

Climate Change Minister Greg Combet said some people in the rally crowd were extremists.

“We had the Lavoisier group – a group which, as one commentator points out, warned the Kyoto protocol was part of a new imperial structure that would relocate Australian sovereignty to Germany,” he said. (source)

WTF? And one Labor MP has gone even further:

FEDERAL MP for Bendigo Steve Gibbons has been caught on social media website twitter comparing anti-carbon tax protesters to the notorious Ku Klux Klan.

But Mr Gibbons has defended the tweet, saying one of three anti-carbon tax rallies yesterday had been infiltrated by right-wing groups with a racist agenda.

Bendigo man Tony Hooper, a key organiser in Victoria of the No Carbon Tax Protest Group, says he is absolutely disgusted at the comments and will demand an apology.

In his tweet on the pro-carbon tax “noCTrally” Twitter feed, Mr Gibbons said: “Looks like all the extremists were having a day out. Was the Ku Klux Klan represented?”. (source)

Bob Brown even went as far as to write to Julia Gillard, apologising to her for some of the signs, which admittedly went too far: the words “bitch” and “witch” were undignified. However, when did Brown ever write to Howard about some of the disgusting treatment he received from the thugs on the Left? Never, because it’s OK when the target is from the Right of politics.

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All pain, no gain

22 March, 2011 by

Climate sense

Climate sense from Richard Blandy from the University of South Australia, writing in The Australian today. Even though I do not agree with the necessity to “save the planet” as he puts it, the logic of the government’s climate policy is deeply flawed:

Unilateral action to decarbonise our own economy harms us for no gain in terms of solving the global problem. Enthusiasm for doing our bit to save the planet will surely wane as it becomes clear this is all pain for no gain. Only a watertight international treaty will save the planet. After the fiasco of Copenhagen, such a treaty looks unlikely for a long time. This means the global target of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2C above pre-industrial levels will not be achieved.

The most sensible climate change policy for Australia in this situation (and for everywhere else, for that matter) is not only to try to put together an international treaty with enough teeth to stop climate change but also to prepare to adapt to a world that will be warmer (wetter? drier? stormier? with higher sea levels?) than at present.

We can do something about adapting to climate change all by ourselves without needing to join in any international treaties.

Whatever happens, we will need to learn how to live with climate change anyway, assuming the projections of the climate change models are correct. This knowledge and the products and services built on it will be much sought after not only by us but by other countries facing the same necessity.

This is what a climate change economy should be built on. (source)

Adaptation not mitigation. It’s obvious. And adaptation needs a strong economy, not one burdened with pointless carbon taxes. Why can the government not grasp this most basic point?

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Carbon tax is wealth redistribution

20 March, 2011 by

Obama in drag

So everyone suffers because of the carbon tax, and the poorest in society are then “compensated” by tax cuts:

LOW income earners will be the biggest winners [“biggest winners”? What is this, a TV game show? – Ed] from a Gillard government compensation scheme to offset cost of living pressures from a tax on big carbon polluters.

Generous tax breaks may be offered to low-income families and pensioners while middle-class income earners would also be compensated to soften the blow of rising household bills and living costs associated with the proposed carbon tax. [So they admit that prices of everything will go up, now? – Ed]

Labor is considering a range of options to ease the pain but is understood to be in favour of slashing tax rates, a measure encouraged by the government’s chief climate change adviser Ross Garnaut.

Professor Garnaut has urged sweeping compensation tax cuts for about half of Australia’s working population to keep household costs down and floated the idea of a one-off cut to the petrol excise to keep bowser prices manageable.

The government rebates could net low income earners about $1500 a year extra in tax breaks, with welfare increases also a likely option [must entrench that culture of dependence on the state – Ed] News Ltd reports today. The report says Prime Minister Julia Gillard is considering raising the tax free threshold to deliver a financial break to a larger number of Australians who will be hit by escalating cost of living pressures under a carbon tax. (source)

Everyone with half a brain (which obviously excludes Gillard and the Labor government) knows that the carbon tax won’t make the slightest bit of difference to “pollution” or the climate. People won’t use less energy or eat less food, they’ll just pay more for it. So it’s nothing more than a socialist experiment in spreading the wealth around, as someone famous once said…

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Greens/Labor split on compensation

19 March, 2011 by

Enjoy the show!

It was always inevitable that when the details of the carbon tax are finally hammered out, Julia Gillard would find herself torn between keeping her working class core electorate happy by helping businesses offset the cost of the tax, and appeasing the Greens with their urban band of latte-sipping trendies, desperate to punish humanity for sins against the planet. The popcorn moment comes ever closer:

DIVISIONS between Labor and the Greens on industry assistance levels in the carbon pricing plan have deepened.

Greens leader Bob Brown yesterday declared he would not accept “gifts” to big polluters and his deputy Christine Milne directly contradicted Climate Change Minister Greg Combet as the party toughened its position on compensation to emissions-intensive trade-exposed industries.

…

Mr Combet said Professor Garnaut “also endorsed the emissions-intensive trade-exposed assistance style of package that the government formulated under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in the last parliament”.

But speaking before the government’s multi-party climate change committee met yesterday, Senator Brown said the Greens wanted a “principled” approach to compensation from the start, arguing “you either compensate people on the basis of information which is reliable, or you make them a gift”.

…

After the MPCCC meeting Senator Milne emerged and directly disagreed with Mr Combet’s assertion that Professor Garnaut had endorsed the Rudd package on assistance to emissions intensive trade exposed industries.

“No that isn’t how I read it,” she said. “Professor Garnaut has made it clear that he supports a principled approach.”

The harder line from the Greens came in the same week as Julia Gillard moved to distance herself from the minor party, declaring that only Labor could deliver a decision to price carbon and describing the Greens as being at the “extremes” of Australian politics. (source)

At least Gillard’s right on that point.

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So now it's a "pollution tax"?

16 March, 2011 by

More spin than a launderette

Greg Combet coins another lie this morning to deceive the Australian public, naming the “carbon dioxide tax” a “pollution tax”. We’ll come on to that in a minute, as Combet spins yet another yarn in The Daily Telegraph today, full once again of misrepresentations and half-truths, in a desperate attempt to justify a pointless “tax on everything”.

Once again he refers to Tony Abbott’s questioning of the policy as a “full-blown scare campaign”, but cannot actually answer the simple questions people have about a carbon tax. He goes on to describe the potential effects of climate change (as told to him by his alarmist advisers), which I guess he doesn’t believe is a scare campaign…

Australia, as a very hot and dry continent, has a lot to lose from the effects of climate change. Our industries in the areas of agriculture, resources and tourism will all suffer from these impacts. Also as most of our population lives on the coast we can expect severe social and economic impacts if predicted sea level rises occur.

The most recent [alarmist – Ed] science indicates that the potential effects of climate change are only getting worse, and the chance of them happening is much more certain.

Economic studies show that the effects will also affect our economy which means less economic growth and fewer jobs.

As opposed to a carbon tax which will mean even less economic growth and even fewer jobs… And I am getting really bored of asking this, Greg, but what will a unilateral carbon tax in Australia do to mitigate any of these things? NOTHING AT ALL.

So let’s move on to the big one, the “pollution tax”:

The Government has now announced a pricing framework that allows us to engage with the community on the detailed design, and provides business with certainty so they can begin to plan.

That framework has a carbon price that will effectively operate as a pollution tax before moving to an emissions trading scheme.

The reality is that this tax has nothing to do with pollution at all. The harmless trace gas carbon dioxide, even at many multiples of the current level of about 390 parts per million, cannot possibly be regarded as “pollution”. It’s toxicity only becomes apparent at 10,000 ppm (or 1% of the atmosphere), which is more than 25 times the current levels. But by using the word “pollution”, Greg obfuscates and confuses the issue in people’s minds, so they are not sure what he is referring to, and the immediate reaction would be “Pollution = bad, we should do something about it.”

This lie is compounded further:

The environmental benefits of cleaning up our pollution will also become clearer as this debate unfolds, but facts not fear campaigns should be the basis for the community making decisions about the Government’s plans.

“Cleaning up our pollution”? This is just a brazen attempt to mislead the public into thinking that the carbon tax is about “cleaning up pollution”, when in reality it is about a pointless attempt to control the climate by reducing emissions of a harmless trace gas.

So who is the real merchant of misinformation, Greg?

Read it here.

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Combet smears expose Labor's carbon tax desperation

15 March, 2011 by

Last act of desperation

As the polls slide and the public’s loathing of this deceitful government continues to rise unabated, Greg Combet has revealed the desperation that must be felt in Labor circles, as he unleashes against Tony Abbott. Denier Alert:

CLIMATE Change Minister Greg Combet has intensified his attack on Tony Abbott as a climate change denier, seizing on the Opposition Leader’s comments to a Perth community forum in which he declared: “I don’t think we can say that the science is settled here.”

…

“But having said that, whether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven,” Mr Abbott said.

“We should take precautions against risks and threats, potential ones as well as actual ones, but I don’t think we should assume that the highest environmental challenge, let alone the great moral social and political challenge of our time, is to reduce our emissions.”

But Mr Combet said Mr Abbott’s comments demonstrated “what we all know, and that is that Mr Abbott is a climate change denier, which explains why his climate policy is nonsense”.

“Despite his best efforts to convince people that he really does accept the climate science, these comments make clear he has not changed his view that the science is, in his own words, ‘absolute crap’.

“Mr Abbott’s comment confirms that at the core of the Liberal Party is the extreme view that climate change doesn’t exist.” (source)

Nobody denies climate change exists, Greg. Are you really that stupid or are you just pretending? What people question is the magnitude of the effect that humanity has, and whether the massive costs of mitigation are worth the almost zero benefits (which they aren’t). But that’s too subtle for Greg, who resorts to the hysterical “denier” rhetoric when confronted with an opposing view, which is always the last act of a desperate man with nowhere to go.

You have to feel sorry for Greg [only a tiny bit – Ed], trying to sell a crock of a policy which he knows as well as blind Freddy won’t do a thing for the climate. Whether Abbott is a “denier” at all is irrelevant. Nothing Australia does on its own will change the climate so a carbon tax or an ETS will be a huge amount of pain for no gain whatsoever. In that regard, Abbott’s direct action plan is as pointless as Labor’s carbon price.

And what’s probably annoying Greg even more is the fact that the public are seeing through the futility of a unilateral carbon tax:

Voter hostility to tackling climate change with a carbon price has jumped sharply since the federal government announced the plan last month.

A Nielsen telephone poll, published in Fairfax newspapers on Tuesday, surveyed 1400 voters last week and shows found 56 per cent were opposed to the introduction of a carbon price, while 35 per cent supported it.

A month earlier, 44 per cent of voters opposed the introduction of a carbon price, compared to 46 per cent which supported it. (source)

Twelve percent increase in opposition in a month. That must sting. And it will only get worse.

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Government campaign of climate misinformation on the way?

14 March, 2011 by

Think propaganda

I guess that would finally finish off Gillard and her crooked Government. Spending tax-payer dollars to promote a policy that was explicitly ruled out before the election won’t go down too well, I would suspect. Excellent. Bring it on.

AUSTRALIANS face bombardment with glossy brochures, emotive TV ads and subliminal “below the line” marketing under a ready-made strategy to sell the government’s proposed carbon tax.

A communications plan drawn up for the dumped carbon pollution reduction scheme urged a “call to action” campaign to boost public support for cutting carbon emissions.

The plan reveals a $6.5 million mailout of 6-8 page information booklets was under consideration by the former Rudd government to win public support for its climate response.

It also recommended a $7-$20 million media buy to explain to households the need for climate action, which would cost them $4-$5 a week more in electricity bills and $2 more a week for gas.

The December 2009 document, obtained by the opposition under freedom of information laws, urged a multi-pronged campaign worth up to $30 million to address an “information gap” in the community.

“It is important to note that advertising will need to be a core component of the communications program,” the plan said.

It said “below the line activities”, involving public relations specialists and digital marketers, should also play a role. (source)

Can’t wait, and I bet neither can you…

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GetUp's gullible lemmings protest FOR a pointless tax

13 March, 2011 by

Saving the planet… yeah, right

The stupidity of the urban Green Left knows no bounds, as 8000 gullible fools protest in favour of an utterly pointless tax which will:

  1. Make no difference to the climate whether locally or globally; and
  2. Damage Australia’s economy and consequently everyone’s standard of living (including that of each and every protester at the demonstration).

But they don’t have the insight to understand these blindingly obvious statements, because they’re too busy saving the planet, right?

More than 8000 people showed their support for putting a price on carbon outside Treasury Place in Melbourne, but only about 400 demonstrators fronted at Julia Gillard’s electorate office in Werribee to protest against the carbon levy.

Paul Mackay of GetUp!, which helped organise the Treasury Place rally, said most people supported a cap on emissions. [delusional as well – Ed]

“This rally was more or less a response to planned protests against the carbon tax,” he said.

“It was a chance for people to come out and show that they still support action on climate change.

“We had families with children and a lot of older people too.

“I think a lot of people left buoyed that the issue is still on the radar.” (source)

Climate Madness. I sincerely hope that the rally in Canberra on 23 March puts this in the shade…

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