Protesters outside State Parliament. Credit: Damian Baker.

By Damian Baker

Along with an improve in the weather there seems to be an upsurge in community protest in Sydney.

Last Sunday, Nine Network personality Catriona Rowntree, together with “Packed to the Rafters” actor Michael Caton, news presenter John Gatfield, DJ Jono Coleman and comedian Rod Quantock took part in a protest march to NSW Parliament House in Sydney. Demonstrators were walking to fight the government’s plans to increase the Ku-ring-gai council area’s 33,000 homes by an extra 20,000 medium density and high-rise dwellings.

Billed as “The Death of Democracy,” the procession to Macquarie Street had a decidedly middle class, middle age demographic about it and the protest seemed to follow a trend in a rise of public outcry by a wide range of community groups.

Government inaction on a wide range of issues often linked to environment and planning issues seem to be bringing discontented suburbanites to the city in greater numbers to voice their displeasure. The conservative-looking crowd on Sunday even enjoyed laughs with the out-of-town political activist and comedian Rod Quantock who came from

Rod Quantock. Credit: Damian Baker.

Melbourne for the event.

”One thing I have always admired NSW for is your level of political corruption … it is a remarkable model for the rest of the nation,” he said to applause.

Quantock handed out chalk sticks, calling on the crowd to write their names and messages of protest on the footpath. Participants ranged from grandmothers to toddlers who covered the road outside Macquarie Street with their scrawl before having their fun cut short by members of the NSW Police who decided it might create clean-up problems.

To continue the protest season, the weekend of October 10 will see activists gathering for the yearly climate camp groups in Helensburgh near Wollongong.  Like the “Death of Democracy” march, organisers hope to foster the use of protest as a means to place pressure on government.

It has been billed as a family friendly event where peaceful civil disobedience is encouraged to show displeasure at government inaction on important climate change issues. Indeed “civil disobedience” is a phrase which might be seen more often in the media headlines this year if the current activist trends continue and politicians continue to ignore the shift in public consciousness.

As commentator/intellectual Clive Hamilton has stated: “politics has failed, time for civil disobedience.”

Tags: death to democracy, protest, quantock