COMMENT: XR pests take for granted the freedoms our diggers fought for
The ideological zealotry of the Extinction Rebellion pests knows no bounds, and their Brisbane brother Jonathan Sri can’t even show our diggers respect in his panic over the planet, writes Peter Gleeson.
Opinion
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ACCORDING to its website, Extinction Rebellion is a socio-political movement that uses civil disobedience and resistance to protest climate breakdown, biodiversity loss and the risk of social and ecological collapse. In other words, it’s no better than an environmental cult.
The problem with this is that government, the judiciary and police don’t have the faintest idea of how they should be sanctioned.
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A slap on the wrist is the easiest option. But when these people consistently break the law, create traffic chaos in our CBD and thumb their noses at authority, isn’t it time they were taught a lesson?
The latest imbroglio involving Extinction Rebellion relates to Greens councillor Jonathan Sri allowing them to use his council offices to plan their protest recklessness.
That’s your ratepayer dollars being used to organise CBD protests that bring the inner city to a traffic standstill.
Not content with using his office to help these ratbags, Cr Sri doubled down by comparing what Extinction Rebellion is doing with Anzac Day marches, which he says block CBD streets on April 25.
Predictably, his comparison has angered the RSL, which described Cr Sri’s remarks as “despicable’’ and “disgusting’’.
Cr Sri has no choice but to resign. His comments are un-Australian and a shameful insult, showing he is not fit for office. But herein lies the problem for Australians who are sick and tired of Cr Sri , protests from Extinction Rebellion and Aussie Farmers, a vegan group who storm abattoirs and farms, intent on stopping people eating meat.
Because these people are deluded, they have no empathy for the so-called “quiet Australians’’, the group of people who rejected this nonsense and put Scott Morrison back in The Lodge.
They think because we eat meat and would prefer an energy policy which combines renewables with coal, we should be deported to another planet.
Their ideological zealotry knows no bounds. These groups are havens for the weak and the vulnerable, those who are easily led, who want a form of acceptance.
They are misguided, foolhardy and it’s their hubris and indifference to the opinion of others that dictates policy and protest action.
When Bob Brown’s climate change convoy rolled into central Queensland a few weeks before the May 18 federal election, the Labor Party’s internal polling showed it would likely win the seat of Flynn, based on Gladstone, and be ultra-competitive in seats like Capricornia, Dawson and Herbert.
It was around this time that Queensland Deputy Premier, Jackie Trad, and her federal Left-wing colleagues Tanya Plibersek and Mark Butler started talking down the Adani project. Trad even mentioned something about miners needing to “re-skill’’ once Labor assumed office in Canberra.
As Dr Brown’s convoy started its anti-Adani chants around Clermont, a quiet rebellion of its own emerged in these smaller towns. There were even pro-Adani rallies. The locals were fighting back. Coalition MPs such as Capricornia Federal MP Michelle Landry and Dawson MP George Christensen told me two weeks out from the election that locals were “really pissed off’ with “southern blow ins’’ coming into town telling them to get another job.
In fact on election day, a miner in Clermont told Ms Landry that he’d never voted Liberal in his life – and he probably wouldn’t again – but on this day he was abandoning Labor because of its anti-coal stance.
Brown and Trad cost Bill Shorten central and north Queensland. Chris Bowen’s negative gearing and franking credits policy cost Labor Brisbane. Queensland delivered Morrison victory. And yet we in Brisbane tolerate – or at least accept – a group of unemployed thugs seemingly every week turning the CBD into a traffic standstill?
Love him or hate him, how long do you think these protesters would have lasted under Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen?
Civil disobedience – by its very nature – is the act of disobeying the law. In our democratic, Westminster system, we put laws into place to ensure our community is safe and properly regulated.
When people start gluing themselves to bridges and zebra crossings to highlight their plight, surely it’s time for police and the judiciary to exercise their authority.
For Cr Sri to try to justify using his office to help these people by comparing their plight to those of our Diggers is one of the most cowardly and irresponsible public comments a politician could ever make.
Our courageous Diggers fought for our freedoms. They fought so that these idiots could exercise their right to protest, in a peaceful, respectful, non-intrusive manner. It’s time they started behaving that way.
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