So Toowoomba Regional Council is weighing in heavily to pressure Federal and State Governments to get on with building the hugely-needed second Toowoomba Range Crossing.
Mayor Peter Taylor (pictured) has called for a million citizens to sign a compelling petition to lay before Prime Minister Rudd and Premier Bligh.
That’s good stuff and Mayor Peter should be patted on the back
But, Peter, I can assure you here and now that a million signatures won’t create even a ripple in the political morass that determines these priorities.
Toowoomba has no clout! We should wake up to it. This city’s history is of a rigidly conservative voting community with an occasional side track now and again to the ALP and for the Greens.
Mayor Peter Taylor (pictured) has called for a million citizens to sign a compelling petition to lay before Prime Minister Rudd and Premier Bligh.
That’s good stuff and Mayor Peter should be patted on the back
But, Peter, I can assure you here and now that a million signatures won’t create even a ripple in the political morass that determines these priorities.
Toowoomba has no clout! We should wake up to it. This city’s history is of a rigidly conservative voting community with an occasional side track now and again to the ALP and for the Greens.
For the last 10 years or so federally we’ve had a senior Liberal Cabinet Minister as our Member of Parliament. And all he managed was a non-core promise of funding only days before the Howard Government was emasculated. And even if Howard had survived, that wasn’t going anywhere until 2017.
So Mayor Peter, what IS needed here is a huge – I mean HUGE - mass protest march of no less than 10,000 people, led by yourself and your fellow councillors, starting at the top of the Range and blocking it for half a day right down to Withcott.
Look, the Chinese did it with their magnificent “Long March” of the 1930s when tens of thousands of them set about freeing themselves from the corruption and brutality of the Nationalist regime. Six thousand miles on foot in a year over savage country.
Well, we here in Toowoomba and all of us in Western Queensland right out to the South Australian border are captive to the political obduracy, incompetence, and unaccountability of both the Australian and Queensland Governments. Both have failed to keep essential infrastructure anywhere near the pace of growth.
So now, Mayor Peter, do it properly. Get our Western Queenslanders on side. Demand police permission, as you must, and police escorts as well. Use your Mayoral influence – or whatever political pressures you can think of - to recruit Ian Macfarlane, Kerry Shine, Mike Horan, Stuart Copeland and yes even Chris Meibusch if he’s still the ALP contender for Groom – to march with you and your Councillors all the way..
Block the Range road to all traffic for half a day – turn the Range March into a non-partisan political festival. Get the city’s charities to line the course with coffee and drink stops – and wheelchairs and oxygen tanks!
Get the television helicopters up there …Get the support of Huhgie Wiliams of the Transport Workers Union …Get the truckies on side … Make this a show of People Persuasion or with a bit of luck People Power.
This is the only way, Mayor Peter, you’ve got any hope of ramming down the collective throats of Governments the importance to the whole of Western Queensland of a high priority new Range Crossing.
Oh yes! And you can have copies of the Petition for people to sign as they march. You might even get that million signatures. But petitions don’t have the sheer muscle of People Power.
Don’t put the Chinese down just because they were Coms. Look at the life, strength and creativity of the Beijing Game. And admire!
Scroll down to remind yourselves of the history of China’s Long March.
So Mayor Peter, what IS needed here is a huge – I mean HUGE - mass protest march of no less than 10,000 people, led by yourself and your fellow councillors, starting at the top of the Range and blocking it for half a day right down to Withcott.
Look, the Chinese did it with their magnificent “Long March” of the 1930s when tens of thousands of them set about freeing themselves from the corruption and brutality of the Nationalist regime. Six thousand miles on foot in a year over savage country.
Well, we here in Toowoomba and all of us in Western Queensland right out to the South Australian border are captive to the political obduracy, incompetence, and unaccountability of both the Australian and Queensland Governments. Both have failed to keep essential infrastructure anywhere near the pace of growth.
So now, Mayor Peter, do it properly. Get our Western Queenslanders on side. Demand police permission, as you must, and police escorts as well. Use your Mayoral influence – or whatever political pressures you can think of - to recruit Ian Macfarlane, Kerry Shine, Mike Horan, Stuart Copeland and yes even Chris Meibusch if he’s still the ALP contender for Groom – to march with you and your Councillors all the way..
Block the Range road to all traffic for half a day – turn the Range March into a non-partisan political festival. Get the city’s charities to line the course with coffee and drink stops – and wheelchairs and oxygen tanks!
Get the television helicopters up there …Get the support of Huhgie Wiliams of the Transport Workers Union …Get the truckies on side … Make this a show of People Persuasion or with a bit of luck People Power.
This is the only way, Mayor Peter, you’ve got any hope of ramming down the collective throats of Governments the importance to the whole of Western Queensland of a high priority new Range Crossing.
Oh yes! And you can have copies of the Petition for people to sign as they march. You might even get that million signatures. But petitions don’t have the sheer muscle of People Power.
Don’t put the Chinese down just because they were Coms. Look at the life, strength and creativity of the Beijing Game. And admire!
Scroll down to remind yourselves of the history of China’s Long March.
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