Return to launch of Pauline Hanson's One Nation They had run the gauntlet through a mob of undisciplined and abusive protestors and had not responded.
I was privileged to be there, to be among them - real Aussies, and it will be a day I will always recall as history moves on and what will be, will be.
When I left the Civic Centre at 11.30pm there was one solitary protestor standing outside holding up a placard.
While walking to my car about 100 metres away three Aboriginal girls approached me and said "You fucking shit." This, once again, without provocation. I felt like responding but said nothing - like other Aussies I was scared because by doing so I would be mis-quoted and become the attack of some sensational reporting in the media. Where was the equality in our country I wondered.
Sadly we are not, at the moment, One Nation. The evening's events highlighted this. Here we had all the major television stations recording the event. Yet nothing negative was reported about the actions of the protestors and their unprovoked abuse.
In fact, News Limited newspapers put a media blanket on the event - a form of censorship not missed by others on the web.
Can you image the hue and outcry if this had been an event put on by ATSIC and the protestors were protesting the misuse of the billions of tax payer dollars that they have soaked up?
You would have had the Criminal Justice Commission called in to investigate the lack of protection offered by the police, the police forced to arrest and charge people and, worst of all, a totally different reflection of the event being portrayed by the mainstream media with statements like:
Return to launch of Pauline Hanson's One Nation