Commentary by Scott Balson, Global Web Builders
This was the day that democracy in Australia was to be put to the test - yet the media, in their reporting, saw it not. Now why should I be surprised.
As I hail from Ipswich I was able to plan my day to arrive early at the venue, Nicholas Street, where Pauline Hanson would address her constituents after being locked out of the Ipswich Civic Centre by a Labor-oriented council.
As Pauline was to say her in her speech later, a blatant attack on freedom of speech.
It was just after 4pm when I took these photographs, rainfall was threatening, but would luckily not eventuate.
Even at this early stage the One Nation faithful were hard at work - One Nation's Ipswich branch president Tony Price filling the barricades with water. Interesting to note that One Nation had to ship the water in because the Labor Ipswich City Council refused to allow the party to use THEIR (or is it OUR) water to do the job.... on the other side of the barricades the Queensland Police prepared for the night ahead.
The Queensland police were to be one of the stars of the night - unlike their Victorian brothers they believed in what democracy and freedom of speech stands for.
The sun had set and the stage was ready. for the evenings entertainment
ahead.
The image on the left below says it all. Sums up the main controversy of the evening.
This
is the front door of the Ipswich Civic Hall welcoming people to book the
hall... but only if you are not Pauline Hanson and not representing One
Nation. This is the state of the "new" Australia. A country where freedom
of speech is a luxury only afforded the Packer/Murdoch empires - where any
threat has to be stifled by the men and women who claim to represent a "free"
press, but in reality represent our greatest oppression.
It was now approaching 7pm and the protesters had taken up position west of the civic hall, spreading themselves out in a thin line across Nicholas street in an attempt to intimidate One Nation guests. They were to be disappointed.
I confronted a number of the protesters - and was soon joined by other One Nation members in what became the typical scenario of abuse by the louts when we tried to present the One Nation position. Now who are the bigots!
The images below were taken before Pauline Hanson arrived of the 200 odd members of Labor's loony left who were there on the premise of freedom of speech but who tried to muzzle Pauline and other speakers when it was their chance to address the 500 constituents who came to listen.
The second image in the top row shows an interesting new arrival, a media hungry little twirp. The much publicised leader of the new communist Resistance movement who demonstrated just a few days ago when the new parliament sat with eleven new One Nation MPs. He would do anything to be photographed such was his inflated little ego.
Amongst
their number was this horrible little excuse of a man.
His name was "Dan" and yes he is an Aboriginal. When he approached me I immediately recognised him as the person who had made threatening phone calls to my home and office over the last twelve months.
When I confronted him over this his reply made sense in this twisted new world we live in. "What are you going to do you f****ing racist," he shouted, "Go back to where you come from."
The language reflected above was in one of his less slanderous statements. Nice man trying to teach me about "reconciliation". God help us!
(Note: Dan called himself "Barry" in his earlier calls. See Prosper Australia Rally)
The thugs from the thug files were there, including Mark Gillespie (or "Tool"), seen in the images on the left and right below.
Just when I thought things could not get any worse they did. A small group of five radical skinheads with Nazi-style tattoos and "white pride" t-shirts arrived to attend the rally. Now although I, and One Nation members, find them repulsive you would think that if we had to put up with the loony left and their band of merry thugs the police, in the name of democracy, would allow them to come to the rally as well.
But no it was not to be. In the first images below you can see police asking the skinheads to leave... so where is the democracy now? When they left the protesters cheered as if they had won some almighty victory... but this was to be shortlived as the skinheads returned and soon broke through the 200 odd protesters to stand on the fringe of the One Nation gathering.
The skinheads suddenly found themselves like snags between a rock and a hardplace with nowhere to go. The emotions started to grow as the protesters and the cornered skinheads faced each other over a period which seemed like an eternity. One Nation members ignored the new arrivals realising that the media would jump on their presence in distorted reporting and, of course, we were not disappointed.
Later that night all commercial channel would present the scuffles shown below as "between One Nation supporters and protesters".... what the media failed to mention is that the five unwelcome skinheads would not be accepted as One Nation members - this fact being proven time and again with radicals being evicted from the party once found out.
Pauline Hanson arrives:
In the middle of the growing confrontation Pauline Hanson arrived with Oxley candidate Colene Hughes; State director Peter James and Pauline's campaign manager Ross McConnell.
It was the circuitbreaker required with the loony left being given a new target to center their hatred on.
Mrs
Hanson and her executive sat behind fold up desks on the top of the stairs
outside the Civic Hall. They face a massive crowd of 500 One Nation
supporters and constituents and the motley mob of 200 protesters largely
flanking the eastern side of the gathering.
One Nation supporters held up their signs with the one on the right appearing to be the perfect argument to the chant so often parroted by protesters at her meetings.
The images below show some of the large crowd who came to hear Mrs Hanson speak. These are Ipswich people and ratepayers locked out of the Civic hall for political reasons... nothing more, nothing less. People put at risk as they were forced to confront the radical protesters from regions outside her electorate just yards away.
Peter James introduced the speakers using a very powerful speaker set up to drown out the roar of the protesters who did their utmost to prevent One Nation speakers from being heard.
I
was situated in no-mans-land. On my left was a radical and outspoken protester
- well known to me - and on the thug files. His name is Mark Gillespie, the
man hiding behind his camera on the right, but the man who cannot hide from
the camera all the time....
Mr Gillespie continually abused Ms Hanson while she spoke, just metres away. He moved his position to be more in front of her moving from my left to my right... standing hard against the barrier and obscuring the view of rows of One Nation supporters behind. This was a mistake.... I felt my blood boil and I took him by the arm and forcibly removed him from the area.
Gillespie squealing to the police that he was being assaulted at that time. I realised that I was on a winner after one glance at the police alongside Ms Hanson up front and finished the task that needed to be done.
Pauline
Hanson surprised even the most hardened One Nation supporters including myself.
She read most of her speech but then discarded her notes and spoke from the
heart. Her impassioned speech was aimed at those who had tried, unsuccessfully,
to shut her down all night...
She called a spade a spade and a protester a lout.. which pretty well summed up the views of those gathered who had come to listen to her speak. The applause was deafening... and the chants of what remained of a diminishing number of protesters stopped. They would not be heard again that night.
Mrs Hanson said to cheers from the large crowd, "I will not be stopped from speaking to you or Australians anywhere in our proud nation by the likes of the very small people who run Ipswich City Council.
"These enemies of freedom of speech may have the misplaced power to deny me a venue, but they will never have the power to stop me from speaking to my fellow Australians or making myself available to my constituents."
She called on One Nation to stand candidates in Ipswich at the next council elections referring to the councilors as "this twisted, unrepresentative gang who run the council".
Wrap up of the evening:
The evening was a fascinating exercise in democracy with the stars of the evening being, without doubt, the Queensland police. The control that they had on the whole event, yet their ability to control without force demonstrated quite clearly that Victoria's police could learn a lot from the professionalism demonstrated by the northern brothers.
The wrap up of the evening was the tradition meet the people with Pauline Hanson greeting her constituents - most in awe of her - as the phenomenon continues to grow... and grow.
As I was leaving I took these images of the remaining protesters still shell-shocked by the Hanson outburst. In the image on the right Channel 7 interview one of the vocal protesters who had stood like a stunned mullet after the Hanson outburst.
The
fellow on the right, why yes, its that Resistance twirp again seeking another
photo opportunity.... well here you go young man enjoy communist infamy while
you can.
As
I left I could not help taking this image of one of the old thugs in the
thug files, the man who frequents One Nation meetings like a foul smell in
a butcher's shop.
Here he is on the left and, of course, the man in the wallpaper.
The winners were definitely One Nation and democracy. The losers were the mob of protesters who tried but failed to halt freedom of assembly. The heroes were the Queensland police and the star of the night was... well I'll let you figure out her name....
A One Nation spokesman was to say after the meeting, "We believe there is a breakdown in democracy when a democratically elected person cannot use a public forum to speak."
Return to the rally on Nicholas street.