East-west link protesters a ‘rent-a-crowd’: Unacceptable Terry Mulder

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The Transport Minister Terry Mulder “has dismissed east-west link protesters as a “rent-a-crowd”.

He made these remarks in respect to last Saturday’s weekend protest at Smith Reserve, Fitzroy and added that it was poorly attended.  He then went on to incorrectly comment that “When you took away the rent-a-crowd, councillors, their supporters, some of the Labor members of parliament who joined them, it was a very, very small crowd for what is the biggest infrastructure project Victoria is embarking on … (only) a bout 100 people had reportedly turned up, the minister said”.

This is simply not correct – it was not a Yarra Council event and the numbers of locals present exceeded the number of councilors and politicians who turned out to support the local community.  In fact over 150 local people attended.

Transport Minister Terry Mulder’s reference to local people, directly impacted on by the East West link, holding a protest meeting/s is extremely offensive.

We are not a “rent-a-crowd”.

Communities and local Councils from West to East have clearly articulated their preference for Public Transport and Public Transport Infrastructure for Greater Melbourne and not an East/West road link and tunnel.

If it will take several thousand people marching on Parliament to convince Terry Mulder of this we would be happy to arrange it.

Freda Watkin (Ycat)

 Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/eastwest-link-protesters-a-rentacrowd-says-terry-mulder-20130903-2t2nb.html#ixzz2dtYcjNqP