arrested by Tasmanian
Police for exercising his
democratic rights
The heavy handed, authoritarian arrest in Hobart of Australia's most-beloved television gardening commentator Peter Cundall shows the depths to which the Tasmanian Police have sunk in the name of democracy.
82 year old Peter Cundall was taking part in a peaceful, anti-pulp mill environmental protest when he was given a direction to move on outside Parliament House - a worldwide police tactic used to quash legitimate dissent.
Within seconds, police pounced and arrested the quietly spoken octogenarian, hauling him off like a common criminal.
Old Joh Bjelke-Petersen -the eccentric anti-democratic, anti-civil libertarian Premier of Queensland from 1968 - 1988 - would have been rattling in his grave with excitement over Peter Cundall's summary arrest.
The cop involved in yesterday's incident -which has made headlines across the nation - should be quietly shipped off to Port Arthur or King Island for a few months to contemplate his navel and to consider whether or not his actions were truly necessary to preserve democracy and public safety in the Apple Isle.
What the cop did was probably "legal" but was it a sensible and appropriate exercise of a police officer's extensive powers in the circumstances?
The Tasmanian Government should erect signs outside the Hobart Airport reading:
"Welcome to Tasmania - where dissent is quashed and old folk are sent to the slammer before they die".
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PAUL TULLY: PaulGTully@gmail.com
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