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Two sides – The Right And If You’re Left, You’re A Pest

This morning “The Herald-Sun” continued its campaign against any form of protest with its front page devoted to calling the Occupy Melbourne movement “Selfish Pests”, while Andrew Bolt suggests that the students on Q & A were “thugs” destroying free speech by exercising their own. Ah where were they when the Convoy of No Consequence was attempting to deliberately trying to shut down Canberra? (I know, who’d notice, eh?)

Their front page story was an “Exclusive” obtained under Freedom of Information. Mm, Perhaps, they’re right and only the Murdoch Media can access things under FOI legislation. (I won’t mention any access to Andrew Wilkie and Andrew Bolt at this point.)

So one of the people named in the article has sent this to those champions of free speech:

“Here is the statement that I sent to the press in response to today’s article:

The savage reaction to the occupy movement demonstrated the severe restrictions on protesting in Victoria.

I will be appealing the decision to a higher court, because in light of current legislative backtracking such as the amendments to the summary offences act, it has become obvious that it is necessary for us to safeguard our protected right to free speech.

Every Australian has the right to try to uphold their rights in court and these exorbitant legal bills highlight just how inaccessible the legal system is for the majority of ordinary Australians.

The Occupy Movement was about the inherent inequality of the global economic system and this million dollar debt perfectly demonstrates how human rights are only available to people who can afford them.

In perspective, the Melbourne City Council spends significantly more money on Christmas decorations each year, then it spent on the entire Occupy court case.”

Sara Kerrison.

I guess her response will be on the front page tomorrow. Maybe the letters section.

But they’d surely publish it, right?

 

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61 comments

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  1. scaper...

    The convoy tried to shut down Canberra? The author of this rant is either ill informed or an outright liar!

  2. Sir ScotchMistery

    Perhaps a little less time being all gung ho and supportive of the Tony Abbort government leading up to the election may have been a wise idea. Now, with Fairfax in the park, that leaves only the Murdochratic press in support of this charmless, gormless, f*-knuckle and his equally trollop-like slag, Peta Credlin. Any money on the first name of the second Mrs Abbort?

    Or maybe not, understanding that Credlin wants power, not a good d*cking, which Tones likely couldn’t supply anyhow since she is a woman and he doesn’t appear to like those all that much.

  3. Michael Taylor

    Scaper, as a person who was living in Canberra at the time, the media had us believe that the normally tranquil city would indeed be “shut down”.

    We poor residents were thus expecting it.

  4. scaper...

    No mention in your link which also seems ill informed, of the convoy trying to close down Canberra. The convoy cooperated with the police and was broken into two groups for the drive through so not to inconvenience the people of Canberra.

  5. Michael Taylor

    Ah, rossleigh, I see you’ve answered Scaper with the evidence.

    How absolutely thrilled we are to learn that you’re not a liar. :mrgreen:

    Oh woe is Scaper.

  6. Michael Taylor

    And where were you on the day, Scaper? Not in Canberra, I’m guessing.

  7. scaper...

    Migs, you actually believe everything the MSM says or only the bias confirming stuff? Thought you were wiser than that.

  8. edward eastwood

    Oh really Scaper? What a short memory you have! Let it me refresh it for you; In the lead up to the ‘Convoy of No Confidence’ on August 23 2011,the MSM and in particular the Murdoch press, as well as those two well known congenital half-wits Ray Hadley and Alan Jones whipped up a media frenzy to publicize the event.
    The point, (and you should use a mirror to check the top of your head if you’re not sure what a point is) of the Convoy of No Confidence was to surround Parliament House as well as blocking all roads in and out of Canberra with heavy vehicles in order to protest against the Gillard government’s Carbon Tax.
    While Jones et.al frothed and blathered about the ‘tens of thousands of outraged voters’ they predicted would attend, only around 300 actually turned up – leading Jones to claim that the NSW police were preventing the other trucks from getting through. This in the usual Jones manner was utter bullshit and the whole thing ended up being a fizzer – ok?
    Now, go and tell Peta your nappy needs changing and to give you a sweetie when she’s finished.

  9. Michael Taylor

    Scaper, I’m in a foul mood. My order of Ashton Cabinet No.6 hasn’t arrived so I’m guessing that customs picked them up so I’m expecting a nice little excise bill. It’s not the bill that bothers me . . . It’s the delay.

  10. scaper...

    It looks like the author is ill informed then.

  11. Michael Taylor

    Edward, I’m entirely convinced that Scaper’s on the turps. Drinking makes him aggressive. He enjoys agitating people after a few glasses.

  12. Michael Taylor

    No the author isn’t ill-informed. You’re just ill. 🙂

  13. Sir ScotchMistery

    Yes but in general he sticks to turps and orange juice on the off-pay week and lashes out for a 2 litre chateau cardboard 2014 on the other Wednesday.

    In terms of Mr Jones, it’s fortunate none of those truck driving mommas had their kids along for the ride IMHO. May have had heads bashed if they were.

    Puts me in mind of a title of a book about him. League Legends and London Lavatories – My life as a radio shock jock. Have to start researching that one as well.

  14. scaper...

    Never tried those cigars but I’m willing to try. You must write a post on the experience. I suspect it would be a good companion to the Bordeaux wines that I’ve taken a liking to.

  15. Kaye Lee

    Ross lied…they didn’t want to close Canberra down…

    “CANBERRA is set to be brought to its knees tomorrow”

    although did he……

    “It will be followed next Monday by the arrival of convoys of trucks which could shut down roads leading to Parliament House. It will be the first big-wheel protest since January, 1995, when logger fighting a forest agreement used 350 trucks to circle the Parliament and Prime Minister Paul Keating.”

    http://www.news.com.au/national/canberra-braces-for-season-of-protests-over-julia-gillards-carbon-tax/story-e6frfkvr-1226115293612

  16. Michael Taylor

    Kaye Lee, ‘facts’ are things that scaper is oblivious to.

  17. mars08

    Ah scaper…

    So glad you could stop by to thoroughly eviscerate this discussion. Well played. Bravo!

    You seem in splendid form… can I assume you’ve also got time to sort out some unfinished business???? We have been waiting ALMOST THREE WEEKS!

    April 19, 2014 • 6:22 pm
    I’m up for it tomorrow as a bit distracted at the moment.

    Facts instead of feelings? Oh dear.

    Now… what have you prepared for us? Show us what you’ve got maestro… and please don’t hold back!

  18. scaper...

    Mars, that must of being Easter and couldn’t the next day due to a surprise. Good shit happens, eh?

  19. mars08

    Such a professional … Always leave them wanting more.

  20. Roswell

    Scaper must be unhappy because he hasn’t killed any animals lately. Scaper knows what I’m talking about.

  21. rossleighbrisbane

    Ok – I’m a serial liar. I’ve been suggesting that the Liberals promised no new taxes before the election but apparently they didn’t!

  22. john921fraser

    <

    Drunks and cigar smokers …. whats the world coming too ?

    No worries with the liars though …. so many of them running the country what difference could Rossleigh possibly.

    Reference

    To whom it may concern,

    I have always found RossLeigh of Brisbane to be truthful and honest in person and in his writings.

    Sincerely
    John Fraser

    Sorry "Scaper" i'm working with 2 speeds today, slow and f* you …. you get the latter.

  23. Timtim

    @Scaper, the proposed route and timing through south Canberra would have blocked access of about 30,000 residents from travelling north to the CBD at the beginning of peak hour had the “predicted” numbers of heavy vehicles been in attendance. As a worker at the time in the first southbound building on Northbourne avenue with a Government logo on it, the noise of the horns from the passing trucks was loud enough that I could not actually use my phone and thus actively preventing me from being able to carry out my duties (awesome use taxpayer funded time). Because of the expected disruptions many people took that day off and as such the CBD was far less populated than normal, anecdotally many of my friends who worked in retail in the CBD at the time reported the place as “dead”.
    So @Scaper if you weren’t trying to shut down Canberra you did do a lot of things to attempt it.

  24. Sir ScotchMistery

    Can we just forget @Scraper exists. It isn’t as though it has made any points that added to the conversation.

  25. Dan Rowden

    Actually, I don’t think any of you have shown that Ross didn’t speak a bit of bullshit.

    Ah where were they when the Convoy of No Consequence was attempting to deliberately trying to shut down Canberra? (I know, who’d notice, eh?)

    Not a thing you’ve shown lends weight to that precise accusation. Jesus, Micheal is studying law and you all think you’ve made a case against scraper? Wow. Just wow.

  26. rossleighbrisbane

    Gee Dan, I’ve already confessed,to lying about the Liberals promising not to introduce any new taxes because – as they pointed out – they said they’d introduce a levy for their PPL!

  27. john921fraser

    <

    It was mass suggestion Dan Rowden.

    Everyone thought that Jones convoy of crap was going to shut down Canberra …. another fine job racked up to the legend Jones.

    Abbott became P.M. the same way.

  28. Dan Rowden

    Seriously, it may have been supported by Jones but it was hardly his idea. Let’s give people with an opposing view their due for f’s sake. They have the same democratic rights we do.

  29. Matters Not

    He enjoys agitating people after a few glasses.

    Well he may enjoy ‘agitating’ people, it seems he misses the big picture. Put simply, he’s a ‘figure of fun’.

    I think the four letter phrase is ‘dumb as dog shit’.

    And the evidence abounds.

  30. Matters Not

    you all think you’ve made a case against scraper (sic)?

    Dan, I think you’ve missed some history here.

    Scaper (better known as Tony Mack) has a long history of being a ‘troll’ and I used that pejorative descriptor advisedly.

    As always he demonstrates he has no command of the language.

    that must of (sic) being Easter

    But what else would one expect from a Cranbrook ‘boy’.

  31. Kaye Lee

    Dan,

    We are not in a court of law. The event was called “Election Now No Carbon Tax Rally. A petition will be presented calling for a double-dissolution election.”

    As you have so scathingly pointed out many times, calling for the GG to dissolve Parliament is just silly – it can’t happen – so from the outset this was a ridiculous notion yet you want me to “give them their due”?

    Tony Abbott said at the time
    “This is a promise that will haunt the Prime Minister and the Government every day until their ultimate political death. This Government fundamentally lacks legitimacy and not because it lacks a majority but because it lacks integrity and nothing more highlights the Government’s lack of integrity than this monumental broken promise.”

    There will be no new taxes under a government I lead?

  32. Sir ScotchMistery

    That note about Cranbrook reminded me of the head of the river when we (Newington) chanted:
    Tiddlywinks old man
    Get a woman if you can
    If you can’t get a woman
    Get a Cranbrook man

    Ah history indeed.

  33. Dan Rowden

    Matters Not,

    Thanks for the background. I’ve not encountered this person before. That said, media stories about a political rally don’t really constitute evidentiary support for claims regarding the organisers’ supposed intentions. MiM can testify to that.

  34. Kaye Lee

    I’m just wondering how those truck drivers feel about a new fuel excise. The carbon tax didn’t apply to petrol but GST and fuel excise sure do. That is what would commonly be referred to as a double yonk.

  35. Stephen Tardrew

    Scrap scraper hes is just wasting time with one sentence provocations and little to back up his fairy tale claims.

  36. Dan Rowden

    I imagine they’re going to be mightily peeved about it. One thing rural supporters of the Coalition have never seemed to like is having the content of their pockets lightened. In fact, I suspect we’re on the cusp of that period in the life of this Government where they finally institute ideas that are going to directly hurt lots of people and thereby wake them the hell up. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, really, in that I don’t want to see people being financially harmed but the more harm this Government does the better it will be for us politically. I have my eye particularly on that elusive 18-24 demographic. I’m really beginning to think the Government has never heard of the adage: “Let sleeping dogs lie.”

    Pretty soon their ranks are going to be singing a song made popular in Men in Black.

  37. Dan Rowden

    Stephen,

    Scrap scraper hes is just wasting time with one sentence provocations and little to back up his fairy tale claims.

    I suspect that’s pretty much what “scraper” was thinking regarding what Ross said. 😉

    My last post about the fuel excise was directed at Kaye Lee … I keep forgetting people post while you’re constructing yours; doh…

  38. Kaye Lee

    April 3 2014 – Julie Bishop rules out GST rise and fuel excise re-indexation in lead up to WA Senate election rerun

    CHRIS UHLMANN: You also have to look at taxes though, don’t you? Should fuel tax excise be indexed again?

    JULIE BISHOP: Well, these are not matters that I intend to discuss prior to the budget. There is no plans to do that. The fact is though, we will have to make some pretty tough decisions and when you’ve got a budget in the kind of disarray that we inherited then we have to ensure that we get spending under control and that we live within our means.

    CHRIS UHLMANN: Certainly, but you have two ways of going about restoring a budget surplus – that is to cut spending and to lift taxes. Are you looking at lifting taxes?

    JULIE BISHOP: We’re not a government that believes in higher taxes. We believe in lower taxes and I know Joe Hockey and the team are working very hard to cut out the unnecessary wasteful government spending that we’ve seen over the past six years under Labor.

    http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s3977262.htm

  39. Dan Rowden

    When are journalists going to get back to realising that when they interview pollies they are not in Parliament and there is a perfectly reasonable expectation that the pollies should answer the f..king question put to them! Chris Uhlmann = Wimp.

  40. Michael Taylor

    I’ve known Scaper for about eight years. He’s fairly harmless but just likes to get under people’s skin – which he does quite effectively. My take is that he just likes stirring people up.

    Scaper used to be a hard-core Lefty but he went to the dark side during Rudd’s first term. Personally, I think he’ll come back to us in due course. Until then we’ll just have to bear with him.

    Scaper’s biggest problem is that he sometimes gets too close to a keyboard when he’s in a bad mood. Then the stirring can turn into a vicious personal attack. I’ve found that just telling him to calm down does the trick.

    Deep down he’s not a bad bloke. But that side of him isn’t usually on display across the intertubes.

  41. turnleft2016

    can’t we just treat Bolt, Devine and the rest of the Murdoch court jesters like they are nothing, if we ignore them they might just go away, the more attention we give them, positive or negative, the more that legitimises them (especially negative attention, then they get to play the victim and attack the oh-so-mean and elitist lefties) and mainstreams their far-right Murdochian “values”… no? ok

  42. rossleighbrisbane

    I agree, turnleft, but then – like picking at a scab – I find I do it anyway.

  43. turnleft2016

    while we analyse, discuss, dissect, every word that comes from these people, we are not discussing left / centre ideas, writers, columnists, issues… its a distraction, Murdoch calls the tune and we dance to it

  44. Michael Taylor

    That would explain why 82% of news.com readers want the Abbott Government to crack down on welfare recipients.

    They’ve successfully sold the story that welfare recipients are a blight on society. They’ve failed to tell the story that the cost of living will be skyrocketing.

  45. Dan Rowden

    The Murdoch court jesters cannot be ignored, firstly because they aren’t funny, and secondly because they are not nothing. Either they helped hand Abbott Government or they didn’t. If the former then they are persons whose influence has to be addressed. I rather doubt any of them are going to care if the “Left” shuts up about them. Certainly there’s some truth to the notion that any press is good press, and in talking about them we provide them with such to a degree, but if these people go unchallenged they basically, well, go unchallenged. Not sure that’s our best option.

  46. scaper...

    I know what went down in Canberra because I convoyed and was there. Never was it the intention to inconvenience the people of Canberra and it never happened.

    Migs, as usual will send you the proof. I’m neither left or right. Never was one to run with the mob!

  47. Stephen Tardrew

    Johno:

    Well splice me mainsail and hoist me jib that Abbott fella certainly knows something about piracy.

    He who speaks with forked tongue and feigned indignity rides roughshod over the struggling masses.

    I won’t do what I’m gunna do because what I’m gunna do is do what I said I was not gunna do but deny that the gunna do was ever fore-spoken by other than the mythological illusion that was a pre-erection ghost of non-gunnerism known as Mr Flappy Lips of the great deception drawn down from heaven in the image of the great Dog of tail sucking and ass licking circularity.

    Mister Sticky Fibs rides out upon a white horse as the white knight of all that is tricky, slippery and dark: a despotic truth slayer of hidden noxious lies.

  48. john921fraser

    <

    @scaper

    So the hope was that a couple of hundred semis would drive around Canberra ….. and not inconvenience people.

    Humbly suggest you go to a doctor and get a check up before you have to pay a co-contribution.

    By the way I am still only using 2 speeds and you are still stuck with the "f* you" speed.

  49. mars08

    scaper…

    I know what went down in Canberra because I convoyed and was there…blah, blah, blab, jibber, jabber… I’m neither left or right. Never was one to run with the mob!

    Ummm what? Oh good lord!!! You convoyed, BUT you don’t “run with the mob???!!?!?? wow!!!

  50. scaper...

    According to one there, there were 600 trucks but the media said there were no such trucks?

    I dare anyone to endure the whole clip. My point comes around the 6:20 mark.

    That dude, the flag bearer having a chat to Bob Carter and the organisers in the background reminds me of someone…

  51. Matters Not

    mars08. you might go a little deeper.

    I’m neither left or (sic) right

    Usage hint. ‘Neither’ is paired with ‘nor’ while ‘either’ is paired with ‘or’.

    Perhaps scaper could explain how his paid-up membership of the IPA locates him on the political spectrum as being, neither left or (sic) right</b?

    Methinks he's somewhat confused. As usual.

  52. Kaye Lee

    scaper,

    I really tried to watch that video for research purposes if nothing else. I couldn’t do it. I tried even skimming over bad bits…nope. Can’t do it. I guess I’m just a truth junkie. I am also an empath who feels very uncomfortable when other people make fools of themselves.

  53. Matters Not

    who feels very uncomfortable when other people make fools of themselves

    You are not alone. Scaper at one time figured himself as a ‘public speaker’.

    And if you ever heard him ‘rant’ you would know that Scaper is to ‘public speaking’ as Gina Rinehart (his claimed mentor) is to ‘poetry’.

    BTW, for those lacking in ‘history’, Mack is also a Member of ANDEV, and describes himself as a CEO of a ‘political party’.

    A genuine Walter Mitty character.

  54. Billy moir

    Time to have cases heard by submissions without lawyers

  55. Billy moir

    Good one Michael calling scraper ‘…not a bad bloke’. I wanted to show the Gerry Harvey ‘Abbott is a good bloke Gillard is not a good bloke’ quote but I can’t find reference to it. In today’s world that means I heard it not!!!

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