Stephen Andrew statement on the Freedom Rally
A new front in an old war heats up – the battle of Australia’s “Haves” and “Have-Nots”. People who were at last weekend’s “Freedom Rally” in Brisbane, tell me that close to 15,000 people were there. That’s an incredible ‘turn out’, especially when you consider many more would have been there if they had known about it.
That’s the thing. With social media and the internet so heavily policed nowadays, organisers are being forced to rely on ‘word of mouth’, community group networks and public notice boards to spread the word. Of course, the mainstream media ran ‘defence’ for authorities again, playing the whole thing down and discrediting protestors any way they could.
“It is difficult to learn who called the rallies”, one journalist sniffed, “but police believe they are being organised on social media BY OVERSEAS ANTI-COVID VACCINATION GROUPS trying to gain traction in Australia”.
For sheer idiocy, the old “foreign interference” line is hard to beat.
The ‘journalist’, who said he didn’t bother to actually attend the event himself, wrote the account almost exclusively on the back of official “police reports”.
It seems that in today’s ‘bizarro’ world, police sources and government bureaucrats are always accepted by the Press as 100% credible and ‘trustworthy’, while the words of ordinary people, are routinely dismissed and silenced.
It is hard to fathom the thinking of these politicians and ‘journalists’ who can watch tens of thousands of ordinary Australians, many of whom have never disobeyed a rule or law in their lives, take to the streets to voice their concerns, and offer nothing but sneers and derision in response.
Saturday’s Rally, like so many others we see happening around the world, was attended by ordinary Australians, who came from all walks of life, culture, faith and background to march peacefully in solidarity and ‘common cause’ with each other.
That’s what TRUE ‘grassroots’ movements looks like. That’s what democracy looks like – or used to.
As the politician, Kevin Andrews, wrote last week, this is starting to become a movement of the people against a ‘privileged’ and increasingly authoritarian elite.
A First Nations’ Speaker at the Rally, called it a “great Rising” of the poor and downtrodden, against those who have “never struggled” or worked just to put food on the table.
To keep dismissing these protests as the rantings of “Trumpers” and “Anti-Vaxxers” could very well be the biggest mistake Australia’s governing classes ever make.
These are REAL people, with REAL problems and REAL grievances.
They deserve to be heard.
Many have lost everything – their jobs, their businesses, their freedoms, not to mention all the hopes and dreams they once had for their futures.
And they are being sneered at, insulted and treated like dirt by those who hold power over them.
All I can say is that governments who sow division and enmity within a population, by setting one ‘majority’ group against a marginalised ‘outgroup’, has rarely ended well in history.
I suspect this time will be no different.
IMPORTANT REMINDER
The Petition to Save Democracy in Queensland closes soon (31 August 2021).
If you haven’t done so already, please sign and share with as many people as you can.
We need to make sure that the Queensland Government is reminded that they are still accountable to THE PEOPLE – NOT the other way around!
Here is the link to petition.