Convoy protest descends on Australian parliament
Source: Agencies |
August 23, 2011, Tuesday
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TRUCKS blasting their horns and camper vans and SUVs festooned with anti-government banners converged on Australia's Parliament House in Canberra yesterday in a protest calling for new elections.
Police estimated 350 vehicles in at least three slow-moving convoys motored through the center of the national capital and past Parliament and Prime Minister Julia Gillard's nearby official residence.
The cacophony of horns blared across the front lawns of Parliament, where hundreds of protesters carrying signs such as "CO2 is Good Stuff" and "Democracy is Dead" gathered to call for new elections and an end to the government's plan to tax major polluters for every ton of carbon gas they emit.
An organizer of the so-called Convoy of No Confidence, Kate Stuart, said more trucks were en route to Canberra, although she was unsure how many. Some had traveled 5,700 kilometers from Port Hedland in the northwest to protest against an eclectic range of government policies.
The protest was unlikely to lead to fresh elections or force Gillard to change her policies. But it reinforces the popular perception that public opinion has turned against her in the year since she was re-elected with a minority government.
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese dubbed the protest the "Convoy of No Consequence," telling Parliament it was not supported by mainstream organizations but by political radicals and conspiracists.
Rancher Rashida Khan and her partner, Len Baker, joined the Port Hedland convoy in the northern city of Darwin, then drove their pickup 4,000 kilometers to in Canberra.
Khan, 23, said she is angry at the carbon tax as well as the government's decision to suspend live cattle exports to Indonesia due to concerns about slaughterhouse cruelty.
"You can get away with a lot with the Australian people, they're very laid back," Khan said. "But after 12 months of this sort of government - that's all unstable and upside down - it's terrible," she added.
The protest, organized by a truck drivers' group, argues that Gillard's minority government is not legitimate because it has relied since elections a year ago on the support of the minority Greens party and independent lawmakers to form a slim majority in the House of Representatives.
Trucks traveling in 11 convoys from around the country were to have converged on Canberra for a far larger rally. Organizers said some trucks turned back as part of a deliberate strategy to limit disruption to Canberra traffic.
Gillard's center-left Labor Party has suffered in opinion polls since she broke a promise that she would not introduce a carbon tax. Critics say it will damage the economy.
Police estimated 350 vehicles in at least three slow-moving convoys motored through the center of the national capital and past Parliament and Prime Minister Julia Gillard's nearby official residence.
The cacophony of horns blared across the front lawns of Parliament, where hundreds of protesters carrying signs such as "CO2 is Good Stuff" and "Democracy is Dead" gathered to call for new elections and an end to the government's plan to tax major polluters for every ton of carbon gas they emit.
An organizer of the so-called Convoy of No Confidence, Kate Stuart, said more trucks were en route to Canberra, although she was unsure how many. Some had traveled 5,700 kilometers from Port Hedland in the northwest to protest against an eclectic range of government policies.
The protest was unlikely to lead to fresh elections or force Gillard to change her policies. But it reinforces the popular perception that public opinion has turned against her in the year since she was re-elected with a minority government.
Transport Minister Anthony Albanese dubbed the protest the "Convoy of No Consequence," telling Parliament it was not supported by mainstream organizations but by political radicals and conspiracists.
Rancher Rashida Khan and her partner, Len Baker, joined the Port Hedland convoy in the northern city of Darwin, then drove their pickup 4,000 kilometers to in Canberra.
Khan, 23, said she is angry at the carbon tax as well as the government's decision to suspend live cattle exports to Indonesia due to concerns about slaughterhouse cruelty.
"You can get away with a lot with the Australian people, they're very laid back," Khan said. "But after 12 months of this sort of government - that's all unstable and upside down - it's terrible," she added.
The protest, organized by a truck drivers' group, argues that Gillard's minority government is not legitimate because it has relied since elections a year ago on the support of the minority Greens party and independent lawmakers to form a slim majority in the House of Representatives.
Trucks traveling in 11 convoys from around the country were to have converged on Canberra for a far larger rally. Organizers said some trucks turned back as part of a deliberate strategy to limit disruption to Canberra traffic.
Gillard's center-left Labor Party has suffered in opinion polls since she broke a promise that she would not introduce a carbon tax. Critics say it will damage the economy.
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