Protests these days have to be big to be heard so the truckers in Australia have got themselves a convoy or is it 11 convoys focusing in on the National capital to shoo that little red fox out of the hen house. This is really putting your money where your mouth is
Steer clear of protest convoys, travellers warned
These guys are serious coming from thousands of kilometers, the west coast and north Queesland to protest policies that have and will severely impact their business. Glad to see some people do more than talk

Hello clete:

Me too. I don't know what they're protesting against, but I LOVE to see people telling the government what's so!

excon

I hope they are successful in their protest. Trucks bring virtually ALL of the consumer goods to the stores for the consumers to purchase and take home. Without trucks and truckers this entire world would come to a screeching halt very quickly.

In America they tried unsuccessfully to do the trucker convoy protests. Now if the Aussies succeed maybe the Americans will shortly follow suit and protest as well.

Best guess is that Red Julia will out last these protesters . I'm with them . This is a case where silly government policies are impacting the livelihood of the worker... chalk it up for investigation by the Dept of Unintendend Consequences . Of course I kind of doubt if such a similar protest by American workers against over regulation here would garner EXCON's support .Here we call these truckers protesting needless government intervention in the economy Tea Partiers .

It has been successfully used here before, truckers blockades have been a feature of protests often about the cost of fuel, the last one resulted in the government backing off on the double whammy of Fuel Tax and Goods and Services Tax, a tax on a tax. But this is also not the only successful protest on this matter, large numbers of people bused into the national capital recently and this nonsense has already given rise to a new political party formed by red neck independent Bob Katter.

These guys have state government support, if you read the article you will see they were escorted out of Brisbane by a member of the government

Ex I didn't think you would be with them, they are protesting about carbon reduction measures in the form of a tax, you know they are for "dumping their garbage in the air"

Tom what makes you think the consequences are unintended? These truckers, for example, are small businessmen, non union members, so they are not part of the Labor Party constituency. Labor is not interested in the consequences of their policies only in clinging to power and facilitating the rabid anti-business policies of the Greens. Labor says the workers will be compensated for the impact of the tax, which of course is B/S, because the impacts cannot be accurately calculated and in order to be compensated by lower tax you actually have to earn money

Clete giving the government the benefit of the doubt I guess. Point well taken

Is that the same doubt you reserve for BO or does distance mean that government becomes more benign in the antipodes?

Just an update the convoy appears to have been a fizzer, even though there were hundreds arriving in Canberra, Greenpeace quickly organised a rival bicycle rally to dilute their message. Labor MPs took the opportunity to ridicule and ignore the protest. Now perhaps if it hadn't been so peaceful they might have got their message across
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politi...822-1j6ok.html

Hmmm truck v bike... I'll put my money on the truck .

Hello again, clete:

Just because I don't think dumping your garbage in the air is a good idea, doesn't mean I support the government. And, I don't think ANYBODY is really FOR dumping their garbage into the air.

So, in the final analysis, I AM supportive of those mother truckers.

excon

We have a nicer style of trucker here Tom

The convoy of no confidence didn't instill confidence in some who foolishly believed the hype and tried to make a killing.
The pub with no patrons: a detour that depressed a small town

Now I have been to the town mentioned here and in reality it is a pub and little else so I can't imagine anyone stopping unless you had to. When I used to live about 20 miles away I can't remember ever passing through it on the way to someplaceelse. The days of boozing and driving are over, I expect no one has told these locals or is it yocals who didn't bother to join the protest. So much for opportunism, I know it is called enterprise in other places.

In the spirit of the anniversary of ANZUS ;I'll partake of the excess spirts .

ANZUS; all that ever got us was grief and dead bodies

Nonsense... what it gave you was the confidence to go out and become trading partners with the major Asian powers as an equal partner knowing the US had your back. In return the Aussies have been loyal to the end allies .

Now maybe ANZUS has outlived it's usefulness. If I was an Aussie I might think that with the way the Obots have shown a lack of commitment to it's allies as they increasingly get pushed around by the new hegemon. Maybe you and red Julia will feel it's a better deal to hitch your wagon to their train . I don't know the future. But it is undeniable that ANZUS has been a mutually beneficial alliance.

Beneficial in what way Tom. We got involved in Vietnam and what did we discover from that, it was all based on a lie and our soldiers died for nothing.

We got involved in Iraq and what did we discover it was all based on a lie. It is debateble that we helped to improve the life of the Iraqi people.

We got involved in Afghanistan, did our bit, got out and were invited back for what?History repeating itself, supporting a corrupt tyrant for what?

It's nice to have a security blanket excepting when the blanket keeps stirring up the neighbours. Our security blankets have not served us well.

Our UK security blanket cost us 80,000 men in WWI and failed to protect us in WWII, we were expendable. We were a convenience to the US in WWII and that was remembered with ANZUS. Australia has paid for ANZUS with the lives of our soldiers and the sad part is, it makes no difference whether we are there or not. ANZUS has only been envoked on one side.

The kiwi's thought so much of ANZUS they banned US atomic powered ships from their ports.

Suit yourself... enjoy your time under the Sino-umbrella.

However it appears you are at odds with your compadres .http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...817-1ixmo.html


http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...out-ANZUS.aspx

Just like the European nations ;you have been able to spend more on domestic concerns because an alliance with the US meant you spent less resources on your military.

I'd say you are being ungrateful.

Grateful, Australia has military expenditures that are in keeping with the size of our population. Australia's military expenditures rank 12th in the world and to match the US on percentage of GDP they would more than double and put us ahead of Russia, so, Tom, we have been keeping our end up and not over relying on the US. We spend more than Canada even though we are not a member of NATO. If you are saying we are not nuclear capable, then that is the only criticism you can mount unless it is on the size of our standing army. We work on quality not quantity and have less friendly fire incidents