From The Australian, the beginning of a nationwide convoy protesting the carbon tax. I’m sure the delicate sensibilities of the ruling class in Canberra, most of which don’t know the meaning of actual work, will be greatly offended when these folks roll into town.
Note that there are some familiar faces to WUWT involved. Read on.
Mass convoy to make ‘real’ voices heard
Peter Whyteroff (third from left) with other members from the convoy of No Confidence to Canberra, who will take the longest trip to the country’s capital, photographed in Port Hedland where they leave from on Tuesday. Picture: Aaron Bunch Source: The Australian
FOR some it’s climate change alarmism; for others too much wasted taxpayers’ money on boatpeople, school halls, or pink batts; and for others still it’s the importation of Chinese apples, the temporary ban on the live cattle trade, or same-sex couples rearing children.
But the common thread in what is emerging as a national Tea Party-style revolt in the form of a “Convoy of No Confidence” to Canberra is a burning conviction that politicians of all persuasions have lost touch with the real-life needs of the common man and woman they are supposed to represent.
What began as a truckies protest against the carbon tax has grown into a mass alliance of those outside the urban elites who feel they have lost their voice.
It’s an amalgam of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers who are mad as hell and not going to take it any more.
The convoy, whose drivers will start their engines this week from around the country and converge on Canberra next Monday, was conceived by the National Road Freight Association.
…
But it now looks likely to be joined by a wide range of supporters and vehicles ranging from big rigs to utes to campervans, and even motorcycles.
They will ride under the banner “Real people — facing the forgotten issues with friendship and a little fun.”
The first of a total of 11 convoys — each with its own leaders and colours — will set off tomorrow from Port Hedland in Western Australia, led by truck owner-driver Peter Whytcross.
…
Mr Whytcross’s convoy will sport brown balloons and streamers. The convoy starting in Perth and led by cattle producer Matt Thompson and his wife, Janet, will emblazon theirs with orange.
Mr Thompson led grain feedlot cattle farmers in a campaign against having the greenhouse gas emissions from their belching beasts included in the national reporting regime, presenting the sceptic’s view at a public meeting.
That speech, Ms Thompson said, led to a backlash from the Greens. “He put us on the radar screen in terms of the environmental lobby,” she said.
The Thompsons will pile their four young children into a campervan for the trip to Canberra, taking the message, Ms Thompson said, “to all political parties to not just ignore our existence”.
The carbon tax, she said, was just one example of how the government “takes us to centralised control rather than allowing the market to work”.
Here’s the map:
And the website at:
http://justgroundsonline.com/forum/topics/convoy-of-no-confidence-in-the
I think it is going to be like “Mad Max” meets “Smokey and the Bandit”.
In the meantime, some campy Americana from the movie “Convoy”:
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Thanks Tucci78! Makes more sense now! So it’s like the Tea Party then – not funded by the wealthy.
Smokey – you’re missing the point. We’re not where we are because we don’t pay enough taxes – even those you say pay none. We are were we are because our government spends too much. What this means is your target group, those you say pay no taxes actually receive a smaller handout than they would if they did not pay stealth taxes. But we all pay those stealth taxes.
So let me give you an example of a stealth tax – it will look like a straw man at first blush so look beyond that. Suppose you run a toilet paper factory and the government decided your company emits too much CO2 and fills the rivers with unhealthy effluence. So they tax the snot out of you to clean that up. Do you eat that tax or do you pass it on to your toilet paper customers?
Lemme know if you need to use a life line.
Tib says:
August 14, 2011 at 6:54 pm
“When I see an article like this I really worry that WUWT is getting too far from putting the science of climate change under the microscope and becoming more of a political advocacy site. An Australian Tea Party?….Going to extremes of the political right or left will turn the majority of people off listening at all.”
Tib,
You imply that The Tea Party is ‘political extreme’. What is the basis of your implication? Have you first hand experience attending T.E.A. Party rallies at your state capitol steps or local gatherings of like minded Taxed Enough Already citizens? I sincerely doubt it.
I have attended a number of T. E. A. party rallies and found the attendees to be polite, well spoken, ethnically mixed in rough proportion to the general population, and joined by a profound concern for the nearly bankrupting debts the federal government and the individual states of the USA have amassed! Most of us can agree that +$14.5 trillion and growing US debt is extreme. Most of us can agree that borrowing 40 cents of every dollar that the US government spends is extreme and unsustainable!
The common TEA party theme is a focus on issues of primary concern, cut spending on secondary and lower priorities, balance the federal and state budgets, and create real surpluses to pay down debt. This will reduce our debt incurred interest payments over time, cut the size and cost of government, reduce the bureaucratic regulations that strangle economic growth, and re-invigorate private sector investments. Private sector economic growth is the only true source of sustainable jobs and wealth creation and the wealth fountain from which all tax receipts are siphoned.
In what way is that extreme? Focus on highest priorities. Cut spending. Live within your means. Pay off your debts. Encourage, reward, and celebrate private enterprise. Extreme? Really? These are the fundamentals my parents and grandparents lived by and taught to all of their children. Please explain how these time tested fundamentals are ‘extreme’….
Just noticed…..That looks like a Kenworth!!!
How fitting, a U.S. truck?
Tucci78 onAugust 14, 2011 at 7:38 pm, you wrote:
QUOTE
In addition to the Southern Cross flags of Australia, I strongly suggest that the folks in this Convoy of No Confidence fly the battle flag of the U.S. Confederacy.
UNQUOTE
Thanks, we appreciate your support but we don’t need your flag.
Once long ago, Australian miners fought against government opression and flew the Eureka flag.
While they lost that battle, they eventually won the war.
We still fly the Euteka flag when it is appropraite.
For your information, less that 30% of Australians now support the current governemt, as opinion poll after opinion poll has shown.
We are just waiting, more or less patiently, for the next election, as our democracy is strong.
Smokey, NO TO CARBON TAX, let’s also get back to talking about ‘rearing’? There’s a really important connection here with all of this taxing and ‘global warming’ stuff….but I just haven’t gotten it yet. Help!!
Smokey, dp has a point on stealth taxes. In fact, stealth tax technology has increased amazingly in complexity from the days of the invention of parking meters.
I look back to my homeland in amazement at some of the examples. Here’s a good one – if you live by a soccer stadium in what is otherwise a wasteland, you don’t get free resident parking. Why ? Because they can charge the soccer club to pay for the resident’s parking fees, which they invented as a means of adding to the price of admission to a soccer game. Brilliant, eh ?
….. and then they give the money to loads of poor people who they import to vote for them without thinking about the bubble bursting and what might happen then.
Ooooopsie, it just did.
…. and who said Gordon Brown was a dumbass ??
Tucci78, sorry!!! I thought we were just talking about the General Lee. Love those boys.
Let me both apologize for a bit of a thread hijack and also declare my solidarity with the truckers and others in Oz who are taking it back from the unthinking bureaucrats down under who clearly don’t get it and won’t until the votes are counted in the next election. Good on ya, best wishes for a sweeping clean.
dp,
I agree with you regarding the stealth taxes. You’re right.
And Bob:
“…let’s also get back to talking about ‘rearing’?”
Why? I don’t want to. But if you insist: Did you hear about the Greek orphan? He was reared by his brother!☺
Lighten up, it’s humor, nothing personal. Or humour, whatever.
Is anyone keeping track of beer sales?
As a sceptic, I also want to distance myself from the newspaper article’s implication that sceptics are anti-gay. I am certainly not.
At 9:21 PM on 14 August, AusieDan responds to my suggestion that the battle flag of the U.S. Confederacy conveys a message of defiance which modern government thugs find intimidating with:
Not my flag, thanks. During World War II, the Korean “police action,” and the Vietnam non-war, that Confederate battle flag was frequently flown by U.S. troops – confusing the hell out of enemies and allies alike – as a statement of defiance. It was the first American flag flown over Shuri Castle on Okinawa in 1945, for example.
Seems to have been a favorite of the U.S. Marines in particular.
But having looked into the history of the Eureka Rebellion, it seems that it’s sure as hell appropriate for you guys to fly that flag right now.
Along with the Jolly Roger.
I strongly suggest “no quarter” when you take down the Gilliard government. Let it stand as an example pour encourager les autres.
Smokey, nice one!!! But there’s no connection then? So confused!
Martin Sullivan posted:
“same-sex couples rearing children”
Is that really considered a problem?
Of course it is! You just added 5-10% more families that can raise children, and as we all know – humans are the source of all problems. The last thing we need is more families – there are too many of us already as far as most of the pro-AGW group are concerned…
I couldn’t believe it when I saw this in The Australian this morning, I honestly didn’t think any MSM was going to mention it at all, good on them. I have been printing out flyers and asking local shops if they would put one in their window, also the local pubs and clubs if they wouldn’t mind putting a flyer up on the noticeboard. The response has been good
.
Everyone that is organizing this Convoy has worked so hard putting this altogether, I really admire them for doing this. There are so many people that are going to join up with the Convoy along the way, and now word is really getting around, hopefully a few more will join in, don’t forget to read all the instructions on their web site if you would like to join in. Trucks will be leading, cars, bikes, etc will be following..
There was also an article about the Convoy in the Canberra Times, they are worried about traffic chaos. They also didn’t get all the facts right, they said nine Convoys, and of course it is 11.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/anticarbon-protesters-set-to-unleash-traffic-chaos/2257420.aspx?storypage=0
Hope you truckers are successful! I also hope they don’t come up with some crazy bs to outlaw convoys. Here in the states a trucker strike is a terrorist act via the Patriot Act, I don’t know what they would do about a sizable convoy. Anyway, I’ve always had a yearning to drive a big rig down under. Good luck!
“When I see an article like this I really worry that WUWT is getting too far from putting the science of climate change under the microscope and becoming more of a political advocacy site. An Australian Tea Party?”
Count me among the WUWT regular readers who are more concerned about faulty science and a made-up consensus than I am about sexual preference or the rest of the litany of right-wing issues.
Folks are entitled to their opinions. I may agree with some of them. But one of the big uphill climbs for the skeptic viewpoint is the ability of the CAGW crowd to label it as part of some right-wing anti-science movement. Be good to avoid that.
Tib says:
August 14, 2011 at 6:54 pm
“When I see an article like this I really worry that WUWT is getting too far from putting the science of climate change under the microscope and becoming more of a political advocacy site.
Tib I agree with the sentiments of what you say, and defend your right to say it. Unfortunately reality is, that politics is subverting science. The orthodoxy of science was not prepared to stand up and demand a cleansing, and still wallows in self deception and justification of political whitewashing excuses.
When science turns away from corrupted science and supports the scientists who have dared to question that political corruption with politicians declaring carbon dioxide is dirty pollution, that will be a start to redemption. Sadly, It is the corrupted bought and paid lackeys, masquerading as scientists that are propping up the Gillard attack on Australian economic growth, prosperity and well being.
The damage is being done while we wait for the science to right itself. Let this be the catalyst for change, in support of a valiant band of scientists who put the purity of science above personal ambition, financial gain, to try and lead other “real” scientists to also speak out in supporting each other and, the scientific principle.
If you can see any other way of reducing the chaos and avoiding financial ruin for so many, speak up, if not, join in and add your voice and financial support in the name of good science, we need scientists to speak up and join up, to make a broad cross section of the Australian public represented in these protests.
The more we see protesting on the steps of parliament house, the quicker it will be to restore science and good governance!
What arrogance to claim that they represent “Real people”. What does that make the rest of the hard working Australians that may hold an alternative view on these matters. Are they not real people? Are their concerns less legitimate. This is typical Tea party style, self centered whinging that has no place in Australia. Anthony, I suggest you focus on the science of climate change rather highlighting the plight of this protest group.
MJK
REPLY: Like it or not, I’m covering it as I’ve covered so many things related to the carbon tax. Your view is typical of people that just want to marginalize others. Get your own blog and you can write whatever you want – Anthony
Observa says: Meanwhile the Kiwis across the moat reckon we should all just relax and- “Chill out dudes!”
Easy for them to say – most of them are already living here in Oz, chilling out at Bondi Beach or Surfers Paradise. The one’s that stay home play host to tens of thousands of Ozzies who are in N.Z. as tourists, guest workers, backpackers or spouses of Kiwis who have wanted to go home.
That’s a nice bit of ‘spin’ from ‘The Australian’, which looks like an attempt to marginalise the main point of the protest in my view. The ‘actual’ petition* only mentions one specific issue:
“…the 43rd Executive Government of Australia has been compromised into wilfully and intentionally misleading the Australian people by introducing a ‘Carbon Tax‘ without the consent of the Australian people and, that would be normally decided by a free and unencumbered ballot…”
* http://justgroundsonline.com/forum/attachment/download?id=3535428%3AUploadedFile%3A252199
Tib says
“Going to extremes of the political right or left will turn the majority of people off listening at all. Someone comming to this site for the first time and reading this article
could be turned off by the political slant – what have boat people and same-sex couples got to do with climate change?
I think Anthony you have done more than most to expose the bastardisation of the scientific process that has happened with climate science. Please keep a steady pressure on that science and away from politics.
Just a point of view.”
I completely agree.
I agree with TIB. This is way too politically lopsided to be a general people’s movement. The TEA Party in the USA does not take positions on social issues. Tacking on protests against boat people and gay parents to boost participation in this Australian convoy is a huge mistake. So was letting someone take this photograph.
When people dilute a central message with unrelated divisive issues, the central message is contaminated. And which message do those participating think the Press will emphasize? The central opposition to a carbon tax, or the peripheral opposition of yahoos to gay parenting? Everyone in Australia who self-identifies as a AGW skeptic will be made to look backwards by association. If the Warmists had plotted this to undermine skeptics, they could not have been any more pernicious.
That’s not snow in New Zealand, it’s melted hail/graupel/ice pellets (anything to avoid the dreaded four-letter S word you see).