The Peter Spencer Rally In Canberra: Warning To Farmers: Beware Of Lib/Nats Bearing Gifts!

(We publish an edited version of an article by an activist who attended the Feb. 2 rally outside the National Parliament. We have added material from a farmer activist who has dealt with the Liberal-National parties.)

The "Tower of Hope" Property Rally took place last week. To give a very quick brief to the background of the rally:

Our Prime Minister is more concerned about galavanting about on the international stage then worrying about his citizens at home. Mr Rudd has taken the moral high ground because Australia, under his "esteemed leadership", met its entire “Kyoto commitment to reduce carbon emissions”.

However Mr Rudd has been less than forthcoming on the international stage as to how he actually achieved this feat. Did he target the coal/mining industry or electricity power stations? Um No. Has there been any reduction in fuel consumption, smaller cars, less whitegoods? Um No. Did the average person in Australia have to make a sacrifice and purchase a smaller size plasma TV. Um No. The Australian Government met its Kyoto commitment by removing the land rights of Australian farmers in a very underhanded way.

By putting through the "Native Vegetation Act" the government in New South Wales (and with similar State laws) has stopped farmers from being able to clear/use vast tracts of their land. They also did this in a sneaky way to deny the farmers any compensation for their loss. Had the Federal Government done this directly, they would have by law, had to pay the farmers fair compensation. So to avoid this, the Federal Government pushed and financially sponsored the State Governments to enact the laws on their behalf. The way the law currently stands, if a State Government does it - they do not have to pay the farmers any compensation. Everyone is passing the buck. The Courts say they cannot act - it is a political matter. The Federal Government claims it has nothing to do with them - it's a State matter. And meanwhile it's the Farmers who suffer. After spending years fighting the government, one Farmer (Peter Spencer) in sheer desperation, staged a 52 day hunger strike to draw attention to this matter. It culminated with this rally.

Everyone met at Magna Carta Place, near old Parliament House in Canberra. There were some speakers, poetry readers and musicians entertaining the crowds while they waited. We also had a couple of bagpipe players, and a couple of stock horses. A sausage sizzle had been put on, and some apple farmers had brought free apples for the participants to snack on.

A number of women had travelled in one of the many buses that brought people from around rural NSW. These had been sponsored by the NSW Farmers Association. There were also people there from Queensland and Victoria. I would put crowd size at approximately 4,000 people. The crowd was 99.9% white Australians - all good hardworking and decent country folk, who put way more into this country than they get back from it. Despite the financial hardships they have endured over the last few years they still made the effort to come to Canberra.

The crowd formed a marching line and we walked up to the front of New Parliament House, where we listened to a variety of speakers. I didn't take a notepad with me (lesson learned for next time) so I'm sorry, I don't know the names of all of the speakers and I won't try to describe them all, just some of the key ones I noted.

Some guy from channel 9 started the proceedings. He apparently had been one of the few in the media to give Peter Spencer’s plight any media attention.

A few other speakers from various Farmers groups followed him, as well as an aboriginal lady who seemed a bit confused.

The Truth Explained.

Then Alan Jones the radio presenter (who was the MC for the proceedings) arrived by private helicopter. His speech was outstanding and really hit the mark. His father had been a farmer, so it appeared that he genuinely sympathised with the farmers’ plight. His speech was really well researched, and listed many of the laws that had been passed which farmers have had to deal with - and which have slowly but surely eroded away their rights to their own lands. It was quite a list. The entire speech is going to be put up on the NSW Farmers Association web site, it's worth reading. http://www.nswfarmers.org.au/

Alan was followed by Peter Spencer. He was practically in tears; he was so emotional about Alan’s speech, and the support he had received from people. He was also a very good speaker - you could really hear how he was talking straight from the heart. Unfortunately Peter's plight does not have a happy ending - he told the crowd that he had now received official notice that his property was going to be seized by the bank on the 10th (I think) of this month. This man has lost everything thanks to his own government, and the plight of the other farmers would not be getting any media attention if it wasn't for his hunger strike. This brave man was certainly a role model to unite everyone who was there.

Enter The Lib/Nats

Senator Barnaby Joyce from the Nationals also spoke. He said he had been behind the farmers’ plight all the way, but he said he was not able to influence the government a lot; he said he was strongly pushing for an inquiry as to how the government had taken away the farmers land use rights so underhandedly and without compensation. Of course, Joyce’s party is paid for by a billionaire, Clive palmer, who thinks that Australian land should be handed over to the Chinese imperialists.

The next (surprise) speaker was Tony Abbot (Federal Opposition Leader). The Farmers’ groups had previously been lobbying for him to speak, but without much success. Nearly all of the rest of the parliament on all sides has been ducking the issue completely and had been to cowardly to deal with it. Abbott gave the weasely politicians’ speech that some expected of him. It all sounded like lip service which committed to nothing. Many politicians had used the excuse to not talk to Peter Spencer – that they wouldn't support "self harm" (conveniently ignoring the fact that this was a final act of desperation on his part, brought about by years of him trying unsuccessfully to get help and attention to his plight from these same politicians).



Mr Abbot started his speech by saying that he couldn't support "self harm" (therefore covering himself). He also went on to say that he agreed with many of the farmers’ points, but not all, but didn't say which. He also kept saying that he would always support and fight when injustice had been done... but we noticed that he conveniently didn't say that he agreed it had been done in this specific case.

The rest of the speakers were from a variety of groups. There was a very passionate young lady who represented a small landholdings group - people who generally had about 5 acres. This legislation also affected them, and I think she said there were about 20,000 people represented by her group. And, another poor farmer told how the government had removed 90% of his water use rights, but only provided compensation for 10%

Another issue raised was the bullying and intimidation tactics used by agencies against the farmers. One farmers group had got together to successfully fight these agencies. There were horror stories of government officials lying under oath, and magistrate corruption. One poor farmer was hounded and paid $500,000 in legal fees, to see the case thrown out completely and the judge state that the matter should never have been pursued by the agency in question

We should 100% support our Australian farmers. They are the foundation of our nation, and without them we do not have food, and are therefore completely dependent on foreign countries to stay alive. This is where the farmers think Rudd is heading - he doesn't care about them, he thinks the nation can survive on frozen vegetables from China!

Having heard Joyce and Abbott, we must be wary in election year that the farmers are going to be sold out if they rally to the ‘conservative face’ of our globalist regime.

If the Spencer Affair proves anything, we must make sure the farmers’ movement is independent at all costs!