Demonstrations of our vigorous democracy in action

Vietnam Moratorium protesters in Melbourne’s Bourke Street in May 1970.

Through the years we have become accustomed to street demonstrations led by the CFMEU. It appears that at the drop of a hard hat this union’s members are happy to be on the grass. The old reckless days when building workers would down tools in the middle of a concrete pour have gone, but that does not mean the end of conflicts in the industry.

We have not seen a construction boom for years. We could do with one now. It would be wonderful to see a dozen or more cranes reaching up into the heavens from the CBDs of our cities.

The economy itself would have to be booming before that scenario came about, and that isn’t happening. When I was in cabinet, experts warned us that housing booms were dangerous, and we needed booms to be underpinned by manufacturing and mining.

The manufacturing side of this never happened but construction booms and busts kept on occurring. If there are cranes in view, then employment is setting north, and you can bet the economy as a whole is ticking along nicely.

When the world economy is doing well, mining takes care of itself. Australia is so fortunate to have so many precious metals beneath our soil. Coal and iron ore are our mining mainstays in export minerals, but we export so many others as well.

In the 1980s we were told that if only we could mimic Japan’s industrial miracle all would be well, and our future would be assured.

We did not know that the Japanese banks had been complicit in overvaluing property, in particular commercial property. When this became too unsustainable the banking system there all but collapsed. Australia is pretty well immune from a major hiccup in the banking system because the banks are guaranteed by the federal government.

When there are really large street protests, the professional protesters, the ones who turn out at every opportunity, are in their element. Perhaps one of the reasons the recent protests in Melbourne were not as large as we or the local police expected is the fear of catching Covid-19. Everything I have read about how easily this disease passes from person to person leads me to believe staying at home is a far safer course of action. What I am grateful for is that the anti-vaxxers seem to be diminishing in number, and consequently in influence, with the passing of every day.

I also have observed during the past few days how restrained Victoria’s police force has been. Despite plenty of provocation, they have remained resolutely calm.

This suggests good character as well as good training. The mounted police have come to expect extra attention from some of the loonier demonstrators, but they too have conducted themselves with dignity and restraint.

Fortunately, only one demonstrator has been mug enough to assault a mounted officer, which speaks volumes for the role mounted police play.

My experience of demonstrations goes back to the Vietnam moratoriums and the last visit of an all-white South African Springboks rugby union team.

Jim Cairns may have been a hopeless treasurer besotted by the wiles of Junie Morosi, but he was the figure behind the really large demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. These were by far the biggest demonstrations to occur during my rather long lifetime.

Hundreds of thousands in every major city turned out to show their displeasure at Australia’s participation in the Vietnam war. Sadly, Australia never treated those soldiers who returned from Vietnam with the courtesy and respect they deserved.

When Gough Whitlam won the election in December 1972, his first decision, made with deputy prime minister Lance Barnard, was to order all Australian troops back from Vietnam. This was the most popular decision Whitlam made. The forlorn nature of our role in Vietnam is best illustrated by remembering that we were supporting a government run by a Catholic minority in a Buddhist country. What’s more, the government fairly reeked of corruption and was without any significant community support. If ever there were a war we should have stayed away from, this was it.

Back in the 1960s it was a common belief that the yellow hordes would swoop down from China and gobble up all before them, including Australia. Few, if any, Australians were aware that the Vietnamese regarded the Chinese with great suspicion. If China was going to sweep south, it would have found implacable opposition from the Vietnamese.

We had been so inward looking under Robert Menzies that we had no real-world view. Our enthusiastic entry into the Vietnam war was a folly induced by the failure of Menzies to grasp the world around him. The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports knew his way around Whitehall and Buckingham Palace but was clueless to Asian affairs. He spent most of World War II ensconced in his spiritual home of Britain.

In the 120 years since federation, Australian democracy has thrived. One example of this is that the right to protest still exists. This week has been a good example of that.