Australia - Taking steps to have a say

February 06, 2008 12:00am
WHEN they built Parliament House up on Spring St, the architects had a very definite message for a young and unruly colony.
Those soaring columns, that ascending acreage of imposing stairs -- it is part temple and part fortress. And the fact that it occupies the highest spot in town is no accident, either.
"We're in charge -- and don't you forget it," says the building, speaking for lawmakers then and now in its no-nonsense tones of sandstone and marble.
Except, perhaps, for yesterday, when dissent so loud and passionate came to Spring St that the public gallery had to be cleared.
What happened during Question Time was a small incident in the grand scheme of things, interrupting for only a few minutes the customary catcalls and jeers, the insults and finger-pointing that fly and splatter the chamber like rotten fruit.
But to hear Ken Pattison, who came all the way from Boort, crowing later about his little coup was to get a lesson in democracy.
If you were near the top of town yesterday there is a good chance you noticed Ken and about 400 of his mates. They were the ones on the steps at noon, waving placards and handing out pamphlets in support of at least half a dozen different causes.
The St Kilda Triangle folks were there. So, too, some fluoride foes from Geelong, who were rubbing shoulders with opponents of genetically modified canola.
In front of them, the Blue Wedges Coalition, who are out to scuttle bay dredging.
And around the edges, a rag bag of crusaders whose demands ranged from a passenger rail service to Mildura to an old bloke with a handmade sign whose gripe is compulsory voting.
As for Ken, a heavy-set bloke in his 50s with the mischief of a schoolboy's smile on his face, his gripe is the pipeline planned to suck water from the state's northern reaches to its thirsty south.
"What else can we do?" he asked after three members of his group stood up in the gallery and interrupted the slagging match taking place on the floor below.
"Excuse me, Mr Premier," they all began in their turn, "but why are you taking the water south?"
That was all each could get out before the guards pounced.
After the third interruption, the Speaker took a break from asking if "the Member for Warrandyte would like to control himself" and ordering Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu to stop banging his fist on the table. The gallery must be cleared, and its occupants escorted from the building, she ordered.
Outside, Ken acknowledged that, while he hadn't plugged the pipeline, he had certainly achieved something seldom seen on Spring St.
It was, he said, a triumph of consensus that politicians inside would do well to emulate.
"You want to know about democracy? Real democracy?" he began. "Well, go talk to the bloke from our group who organised this protest here today.
"We brought groups together today that normally can't stand the sight of each other, wouldn't be caught dead on the same side of the street -- greenies and farmers and anti-GM people.
"Well, our bloke who brought them all together was stressed out of his tree getting them all to turn up.
"But they did turn up, because there was one thing that unified everyone: the arrogance of this Government and its refusal to acknowledge that people have a right to disagree with its policies."
The rest of the protesters had gone by that stage, but Ken and a few pals lingered on the steps outside to savour the moment.
"This building," he said, "they can't reach consensus inside it, so maybe we taught them something about how to do it."
Fat chance of that.
Back in the Legislative Assembly, where the Member for Kew was being told yet again to mind his manners, there was so much yelling that nobody could hear anything more than the sound of their own voices.