Politicians and the 'home-free' argument

Some self-interested bleating from politicians such as Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, who stated, "the "feral left" should respect the privacy of ministers and not demonstrate outside their homes... (and) ... I don't think politicians' personal residences should be the destination of protesters."

Alexander Downer, lot 10 Bridgewater-Carey Gully Road, Mount George, SA.

Typical - espousing more privileges for politicians, whilst insulting protesters and trying to further limit their right to protest. Downer is a disgusting individual - even by contemporary Australian politician standards.

New South Wales Premier Bob Carr cited "moral reasons" for his tortured reasoning on why the protest should not go ahead.

"Mr Carr says people who want to protest against the Federal Government's immigration policies should do it in Sydney's CBD, not outside Mr Ruddock's home.. (and) ...regardless of the legal position, the organisers should abandon the protest because it is in bad taste."

A plea for an end to effective protest and a total negation of the morality underpinning the protest. Caging children is considered "bad taste" in civilized cultures.

"It causes distress to family and they can't be held accountable for the policy decisions of the politician in the family," Mr Carr said.

There are also perks to having a politician in the family. We are all affected by our family member's employ - even the lack of it. Welcome to the real world Bob.

"It causes an upset to neighbours and it's a thoroughly bad precedent (and) I think the organisers ought to feel obliged, morally obliged, to cancel this plan this morning."

I hate this ploy. Appealing to the innate decency of protesters when every other attempt to prevent them exercising their rights has failed.

And this was not an unprecedented action. I remember when a protester dug up Premier Charlie Court's lawn during the Nookanbah dispute in Western Australia. After all he had a 'miner's right' (a permit for mineral exploration). I'm sure there have been other political actions that targeted politician's homes.

And if not - It's about bloody time their contempt for the rights of others was brought home to them.

The obvious rebuttal

When will our homes become refuges from our political actions? My last three homes have been visited by NT Police about 140 times. Why? Because I complained about (and exposed) local racism and corruption.

I've been robbed and threatened at gunpoint at my home, which was eventually destroyed by people I was legally proceeding against, in the so-called Anti-Discrimination Commission.

- An associate had his home ransacked and his bed urinated on by angry (racist) locals.

I'm now facing four months in prison for protesting this political persecution and the fascistic indifference of the Courts and Police.

Cry me a river politicians.

PARIAH in Sydney

We had one of our mob present at the protest. She reports that the Police barely spoke...

None of that common humanity stuff for the NSW Police. To be fair, the mechanistic fascismo look, does suit this style of militaristic policing.

...and that a large percentage of the protesters were from South Australia. Good on them!

Fi was wearing a Philip Ruddock Child molester t-shirt for the occasion and holding a placard adorned with PARIAH - People Against Ruddock Impersonating Adolf Hitler

:-)

She can be contacted at - nomadic_pariah@yahoo.com.au

Solidarity

The following scripts from SBS Insight's program, 8 May 2003:

"Elizabeth Lacey worked on Mohammed Saleh's case as the instructing solicitor.

HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: Elizabeth is going to talk to us about what we've been looking at which is treatment of different people under Australian law, and in particular - refugees.

Ms Lacey has been talking about her involvement in the case at high schools around Melbourne.

ELIZABETH LACEY (AT SCHOOL): I want to talk to you today about this man whose name is Mohammed Saleh. I'm just going to hand this around so that you've got a picture of who I'm talking about while I do it. And the reason I want to give you the picture is because it's his story that I'm going to be telling to you today.

The first thing I want to ask you is, if I told you that Mohammed Saleh had been kept in a small cell, 2m x 2m, where the windows had been blacked out, with two other men for 13 days, and that he hadn't been convicted by any court of a crime, or sentenced to any kind of term in prison, he had to ask a guard if he could go to the toilet. So they were forced to go to the toilet in their cells. What country do you think I might be talking about that happening in?

STUDENT #1: Iraq.

ELIZABETH LACEY: Yeah, good guess.

STUDENT #2: Afghanistan.

ELIZABETH LACEY: Yeah, another good guess.

STUDENT #3: Anywhere in the Middle East.

ELIZABETH LACEY: Yeah. OK. So the recurring theme we're hearing here is that it's probably somewhere in the Middle East that something like that would happen. The reason I really want to tell you this story today is because that's what happened to Mohammed Saleh in Australia.

Here.