After the disruption to question time yesterday, with protesting pharmacists shouting “obscenities” and raising their middle digits at government MPs, as well as allegedly verbally abusing parliamentary staff, the political and media class were united in condemnation.
Here’s Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and LNP Senator James McGrath, quoted in The Australian under the headline “Activists hang shame on people’s house as protests are scaled up”:
Dutton said yesterday he was concerned that the orchestrated protests could lead to copycat demonstrations.
… Queensland LNP Senator James McGrath unleashed on the protesters on social media, calling them a ‘bunch of bong-sniffing, dole-bludging, moss-munching, glue-guzzling, Kmart Castros’.
‘These grubs should be made to pay for their damage and have the book thrown at them,’ Senator McGrath said.
Chris Pyne, Liberal party grandee, was moved to call it the most serious incident in Parliament since 1996’s riots and Dennis Shanahan in The Australian didn’t hold back, pointing out the “fascistic roots” of such behaviour:
This forced suspension of Parliament was premeditated, a risk to the public and designed to maximise attention while threatening and bullying MPs. The shouting down of democratically elected MPs by a noisy minority has a dark history and fascist roots. The technique has blossomed with social media and the coaching of professional protesters: screaming, passive-aggressive behaviour, locked arms and threats that frighten bystanders and capture publicity.
Greg Sheridan, in fine form, called the protesters “the enemies of democracy”:
The childishness and undemocratic nature of the demonstrations is evident in their refusal to try to influence policy outcomes through legal democratic means. These invasions of our Parliament are bad for democracy. They should be unreservedly condemned by all democrats.
He praised Labor leadership for being just as vociferous in their condemnation as the Coalition.
An editorial followed calling the protests “disgraceful” and condemning the Greens “for their irresponsible embrace of the protesters”.
Wait, do the Greens have a cosy relationship with the Pharmacy Guild we didn’t know about? Ah, you know what, I’ve messed this one right up. All this is from 2016, in the days that followed disruptions to Parliament at the sticky hands of refugee protesters, who glued themselves to the bannisters in the gallery, and abseiled down the side of the building.
Let’s get back on script, shall we? In the case of the pharmacists, we had members of the opposition visibly geeing up the protests from their seats, after Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley had earlier encouraged the group to make the government “uncomfortable” during question time:
“At question time many of you will be there and we look forward to it because last time you were there, you made a really strong impression,” she told the crowd outside Parliament House. “Your presence in the gallery made the government uncomfortable … so do not take a backwards step.”
In this instance, the Oz, far from dedicating some of its highest profile commentators, an editorial and a little swipe at politicians who support protesters in the “cut and paste” column over several days, as it did in 2016, ran less than 300 words about the event:
What differentiates the devastating impact on democracy inflicted by one group of protesters, who have spent the majority of the last 20 years failing to achieve any concessions on behalf of refugees, and another, who happens to be represented by one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country, we just couldn’t begin to guess.
A chemist acquaintance of mine told me the Chemists Union is well out of line on this issue.
Amongst other things, the government subsidises small chemists in rural areas where there is no Chemist, quite handsomely. Paying them to set up and stay open!
Yep……………
……….it’s such a “threatened species’ that there was an increase in applications to open Pharmacies last year.
they can afford Toorak record priced mansions in quarters
And anyway, being a pharmacist is a lifestyle choice. Obviously not a good one when hisssing Ssssusssan barracks for you, nobody needs that.
wish the Moribund neo lib NATIONAL BROADCASTER WOULD GIVE TGE OTHER SIDE
The Pharmacy Guild, under it’s current leadership, has totally lost it’s social licence. It’s dalliance with the nuttier members of the LNP put’s it into an unrecoverable position. The behaviour of this white smocked rabble in parliament house is seen as a bunch of weak minded ruffians being whipped into a frenzy by political manipulators shit stirrers
Next time any of these nutters want to have whinge about the cost of living I hope that they will be reminded that they are rabidly hostile to an initiative which lowers the cost of medicines for consumers.
When you’re a wealthy lobby and you don’t vote Green, you’re not a protestor, you’re a dissenting citizen with a righteous grievance.
they outa feel the pain of everyday women being done
And the Orwellian doublespeak of the right accusing the ‘other’ of exactly how they behave themselves….primary school narratives….
“At question time many of you will be there and we look forward to it because last time you were there, you made a really strong impression,” she told the crowd outside Parliament House. “Your presence in the gallery made the government uncomfortable … so do not take a backwards step.”
Susssssan Ley ………………
………..doing her very best Donald Trump impersonation.
how her mates going making motza outta unemployed, solo mothers and disabled – charging 13 k for s ” lift technicians course ” and all our free public purse …..never hired a free flight , never bought a Holiday apartment on the bosses time
Sadly, this has been the abject story of contemporary Australia: powerful vested interest groups, boosted for ten years by conservative governments, full of their own sense of power and bullying importance. They will continue to shamelessly fill the democratic space with their entitled din unless brought down to size. And the toadying MSN happily enable them, thus prolonging their noisome influence. Have I used enough adjectives, adverbs and furious hyperbole? I do hope do.