The recent big weekend of anti-vaccine-mandate marches in Australia. By Robert Gottliebsen.
These days most protests are dominated by either hard left green/woke groups or the hard right. Both sides are dominated by professional protesters determined to do what ever is required to gain media attention. They certainly don’t gain my attention. …
But Saturday and Sunday, November 20 and 21, were different. The professional protesters were missing and so media coverage was down. I now realise similar groups appeared in most states but it was in Melbourne where the largest numbers massed on the streets. I wrote about the event because I believed I was watching middle Australia go to the streets — something they rarely do. The largest protests were on the Sunday where in Melbourne almost certainly 200,000 walked through streets in an orderly fashion.
Morgan Research’s mobile phone analysis is revealing:
Morgan ‘geo-fenced’ the area in front of Victoria’s Parliament House from 11am to 2.30pm.
The mobile devices that were seen in this area during the protest time period were then profiled by Helix group to produce a ‘Heat Map’ showing where the protesters had come from.
Missing were the normal protest groups from inner-city areas. They were replaced by people who had come from the outer suburban areas that ring Melbourne. Some even came from regional centres like Ballarat, Geelong, Ocean Grove, Torquay, Wallan, Warragul, Hastings, Traralgon and Wonthaggi.
By examining the population compositions of the suburban and regional areas who dominated the protest Morgan determined that they were mainly two groups of Australians:
• The so called “contented Australians” who embrace conventional family life. They are perennial home improvers, they see their homes as an expression of their status and achievements.
• Those further down the socio-economic ladder who are struggling to make ends meet and looking for a better deal in life. They tend to be cynical and pessimistic about their situation and authority figures generally. …
Why there won’t be any more lockdowns:
Both parties need votes from ‘contented’ Australians who normally do not protest unless they are greatly aroused. Another lockdown in NSW or Victoria will likely see voters surge to the opposition. …
Middle Australia has spoken and both the Victorian and NSW Premiers will have got the message, which is great news for business.
The professional protestors were vastly outnumbered by ordinary mums and dads, young people, working people, some kids, and so on. So the rallies were peaceful and good-natured. The politicians notice that, and know it corresponds to lots of votes.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
