Letters: Extinction Rebellion protest fuels community anger

Today readers have their say on the Extinction Rebellion protest that caused chaos in Brisbane’s CBD, gun violence in the United States and calls to buy back Darwin’s port.

Extinction Rebellion protesters outside Queensland Parliament House in Brisbane. Picture: AAP Image/Dan Peled

I HAVE not encountered one person in my travels who thought the climate protest disruptors in Brisbane yesterday would achieve anything other than cause annoyance to people going about their daily business.

I hope these protesters, who must be mostly unemployed and living off Centrelink, are leading by example.

Did they walk or ride a bicycle into Brisbane? Are they living in a dwelling which has no power or running water?

I expect these people would be growing their own produce and making their own clothes.

Perhaps they could do some good in this world by using some of their home-grown fruit and vegetables to cook and prepare food for the hungry and homeless.

This would be far more productive that their protest activities.

Katrina Arnold, The Gap

THE climate change protesters use the moniker “Extinction Rebellion”.

They have also cleverly devised tactics to cause maximum disruption to people’s lives, believing such tactics will somehow promote their cause rather than detract from it.

Perhaps as a natural extension they should consider a theme song, with Stuck in the Middle with You a possible choice.

Its lyrics, after all, include “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you”.

Of course there would be copyright laws to consider.

Then again, given that some of these protesters believe they are above the law, that wouldn’t be a consideration that might bring any of their plans “unstuck”.

Frank Edwards, Sandgate

MAKE these mainly young serial pests realise that their actions have consequences instead of the inflated entitlement many have been schooled in.

They are out of touch with community sentiment. Their claim that “every other form of dissidence has failed” is because the government that represents the majority view recognises these people are a rabble fringe intent on perpetrating a dubious agenda on the rest of us.

Their so-called climate change emergency is of their own making, encouraged by Leftist media and some university lecturers.

The Palaszczuk Government would receive a much-needed boost in public support if it were seen to take a zero-tolerance approach to these neo-Marxists and their disruptive manifesto.

Two months of CBD mayhem has only engendered hostility from the wider public.

Garry Callaghan, Collingwood Park

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Advocates of gun reform legislation hold a candlelight vigil for victims of recent mass shootings in the US. Picture: Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP

NO POLITICAL WILL TO END MASS SHOOTINGS

YOUR cartoon (C-M, Aug 5) sadly depicting the Statue of Liberty holding a semi-automatic rifle was perversely true, tragic and a reality hard to comprehend.

The disturbing news of two shooting massacres over the weekend in Texas and Ohio just hours apart belies the ongoing debate of a gun culture wed to the tenets of the American Constitution and its Second Amendment right for citizens to bear arms.

That these shootings amounted to the 250th and the 251st mass killings in America this year shows a country morbidly tied to the barrel of a gun.

America is in the grip of a gun disease and epidemic that absurdly could be curbed and halted if its political class had the wherewithal to do so.

The killing of thousands of Americans each year at the hands of its own seems sadly illogical, irrational and depraved.

The rise in supposed “hate crimes” and the ratcheting up of anti-immigrant rhetoric from President Donald Trump has brought some Democratic presidential candidates to lay the blame squarely at his feet.

That argument is debatable, but the empty platitudes of both Republican and Democratic politicians alike trying to placate the mindset of life, liberty and freedom on one hand, and the other hand’s finger pressed against a trigger bears no resemblance to common sense or reality.

We here in Australia can only look on in horror but thank our lucky stars that our liberty, freedom and way of life is not flawed the way it is in America, couched in an Amendment made in 1791 that is contentious at best but sadly so much more perverse 228 years later with a country mired in gun madness.

Paul Henderson, Wynnum

WHY are people in the US shaking their heads yet again wondering why two mass shootings have taken place?

After all, they live in a country that is armed to the teeth, spurred on by the National Rifle Association and a President who is creating division.

It is one thing for those on the land and certain others to have weapons, however it’s another when they are allowed to purchase military-grade weapons that are then used by disturbed males to kill innocent people. Like many, I have had a gutful of watching this parade cross our screens time after time, knowing nothing will come of the latest effort.

D.J. Fraser, Currumbin

IF YOU’RE the leader of a country, and you have evidence of a mental health crisis, with mentally ill people buying weapons and committing mass shootings, wouldn’t you think twice about allowing such people unfettered access to weapons?

Stephen Morgan, Carina Heights

IF EVER there was a reason for protest it is the incessant mass shootings in the US.

The number of shootings in America this year makes it look like a Middle East war zone.

President Donald Trump is quoted as saying “something great must come out of this”.

Nothing would be greater than to have a total ban on the sale of assault rifles and automatic guns.

Stephen Kazoullis, South Brisbane

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PORT SECURITY VITAL

FEDERAL Labor MP Nick Champion has called for the scrapping of China’s lease of Darwin Port and for it to be brought back under Australia’s control (C-M, Aug 6).

At long last there is somebody in Canberra who has a little common sense.

Darwin is the frontline of Australia’s defence and its port should not be in foreign hands.

For any Australian government to have so little regard for the security of Australia is beyond belief.

Tony Miles, Chermside

THE decision by the Northern Territory government of the time to lease Darwin’s port to Landbridge, a company with close ties to the Chinese Government, for $500 million over 99 years was a “sweetheart deal” to say the least, and controversial, drawing criticism on many fronts, including from the US Government.

For many Australians it was a “sell-off of the farm” deal that many of us will never see the end of.

It obviously had national security concerns attached to it because of China’s increasing presence and involvement in the South Pacific and Australia.

Now there is a strong case being put to nationalise Darwin Port, cancel the Landbridge lease agreement and bring it back under the ownership and full control of Australian interests.

I support that move unconditionally, as should other patriotic Australians.

The Federal Government should be protecting Australian security interests by reclaiming our most northern strategic port, or for that matter other strategic ports on our vast coastline that have important Australian defence establishments close by.

Les Bryant, Durack

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