Letter to the Editor
To answer the question of SMH State Political Editor Michael McGowan in the SMH of 23 April about Premier Minns’ anti-protest laws:
Protests don’t work well any more
No the government strategy is not working. The people aggressively protesting mostly achieve little or nothing. They alienate rather than persuade, politicians. The protesters appeared to make the politicians look stupid and to unjustly blame them for the war in Palestine, the Bondi massacre and the Jewish reaction to it.
Asking is the way to guide government
If they seriously wished to influence the government they would have each invested $20 in a Votergram to politely and persistently without any fuss, persuade each of their 130 state politicians in the privacy of parliament, to do whatever it was that the protesters wanted. Asking nicely works well.
If people who disagree with government cannot put their views nicely and politely to all MPs, then cohesion disappears in a screaming match. Democracy is a voter-driven system of government and Votergrams have been around for 40 years. Modern technology has facilitated the quiet gentle political persuasion option. It is a far more effective way to persuade politicians. If the politicians ignore what the people want, voting them out by campaigning in marginals is more effective than protest.