My part in the protest even the militant Greens say went too far

Last week I attended a protest.  It’s a big deal for me because it’s only the third time I’ve fronted up to be part of a placard-waving public demonstration for what I believed to be a good cause.

My inexperience relates to the fact that I spent my early career working as a news journalist.  When I started out (exactly forty years ago this month), journalism and activism didn’t go together.

The first time I crossed the line was in 1992 working as a TV reporter at what was then Prime TV studios in Orange.  Tragically our talented and popular journalist colleague, Sonya Reece, was killed in a crash on the Great Western Highway.  She was crushed by hay bales falling from a truck that overturned along a notoriously dangerous outdated section near Lithgow.  Sonya was just 23 and her death left those of us at Prime and many in the wider community feeling bereft.

Under the leadership of our esteemed News Editor, the late Peter Andren, we unashamedly signed up to a campaign to get the highway upgraded.  The fight was led by a tenacious farmer from Molong by the name of Marjorie Bollinger and I’m proud to say the road was fixed within two years.

The whole episode was a life-changing lesson in the power of community activism that shaped our futures.  Peter went on to become the first person without any party-political history to be elected to the House of Representatives as a rural independent for the seat of Calare and he took me to Canberra with him as chief advisor.

Years later, my second protest came here in the knitting-nanna protest hotbed of the Northern Rivers.  I joined what was largely a Greens-led campaign to try and preserve our railway corridor for future public transport. Taking to the streets of Murwillumbah I proudly waved a placard reading “say no to middle aged men in Lycra”.  I’ll admit on this occasion I was on the “wrong side of history”, as leftists are so fond of saying, with the disused corridor now being used as a bike trail and generating local tourism.

Which brings me to my most recent outing.  It had its genesis in an armed robbery at Lennox Head days after Christmas. A couple were woken in the early hours, terrified as a thief thrust a knife at them demanding car keys.  Unfortunately it is not an isolated incident, with similar break ins and robberies occurring around the country.

A 16-year-old youth was arrested the day after and the local residents association met and decided to stage a peaceful and respectful protest outside the courthouse.  Their aim was to impress upon court officials that the community expected more to be done when it came to keeping people safe.

When the legal eagles in the court heard about the planned protest, they did their best to avoid it by moving the hearing to Lismore, preventing the concerned, mostly senior Lennox Head residents from making their silent protest.

However the Mayor Sharon Cadwallader, Deputy Mayor (celebrated former police detective) Damian Loone and Councillor Dr Simon Kinny did turn up.  As I happened to be in Lismore for work, I also went along.  Seeing they were lacking in numbers, I decided to join them.

As far as protests go, it was small, quiet and respectful.  The 16-year-old alleged offender received a custodial sentence and family members told the mayor they were grateful he may now get help via some sort of diversionary program.

Imagine my surprise to read the following day that the professional protestors in the Greens party were absolutely outraged.

“The protest was completely irresponsible and risky and should never have gone ahead,” Ballina Councillor Kiri Dicker thundered on social media.

So there you have it.  A quiet vigil-like gathering on a public street disrupting nobody is dangerous, but putting your kid in a canoe and plonking them in front of a coal freighter in Newcastle Harbour (as Greens including Cr Dicker did recently) could perhaps be considered perfectly safe and okay?

The same Greens logic suggests gluing oneself to the road and disrupting millions getting to work, school or even hospital is also a responsible thing to do.

Likewise, falling in behind pro-Palestinian protestors calling for the death of Jews and elimination of Israel is absolutely sound-minded and unquestionable!

Presumably if it suits the Greens and their woke causes, just about any sort of protest is acceptable, but standing up for elderly people being able to sleep safely at night knowing they won’t wake up to a knife being held against their throats is somehow abhorrent?

The right to protest belongs to every one of us in our great democracy, not just those who shout the loudest or most frequently.