The passage of the Brown government's carbon tax has elicited a predictable response from the usual suspects. The extreme Left and environmental lobby are cock-a-hoop and believe they have scored a famous victory over ordinary, mainstream Aussies. It isn't very often a minority fringe gets their agenda adopted by government - especially a policy which has almost zero support out in the 'burbs - but it has happened and the gloating is quite over the top. They are squealing with delight.
To get an idea how the hard Left are celebrating, you only have to pick up The Canberra Times. I knew that once I pointed out the paper's even handed coverage of the passage of the tax, they would then shift the paper back to the hard left and print letters and commentary hailing the tax. It has been quite sickening.
One of the reasons why The Canberra Times has always pandered to a hard left fringe element is the presence of editor at large Jack Waterford who has been with the paper since the 1970s. He is constantly writing pieces promoting radical aboriginal activism, criticising "shock jocks" and the Murdoch newspapers, and sundry other nutty causes. But an article he wrote on Wednesday must surely take the cake for being one of the most slanted and bizarre ever printed.
In the article, Waterford writes that the passage of the carbon tax marks the turning point in the government's fortunes, that Gillard is a leader with the right stuff, that she is a reformer with substance and criticism of the carbon tax is "nonsense", that Abbott is on the back foot, and that there will be a popular rethink over the tax once people realise "something" is being done about "climate change". It was just pro-Gillard cheerleading, it is just staggering and shows just how out of touch Waterford and the rest of the flunkies at The Canberra Times really are.
The Labor party must surely be deeply worried about all the articles and letters in The Canberra Times supporting them and the carbon tax because The Canberra Times and its readers are almost always totally at odds with mainstream opinion beyond the borders of the ACT. Politicians read the paper with alarm if it supports them because they know that it means that back home people are not happy and that their seats might be at risk.
The Canberra Times has even admitted that they have been slanting their publication of letters in favour of the carbon tax. That miserable cunt the letters editor - who has me and other conservatives on a black list and refuses to publish our letters - has either been sacked (yay!) or is on extended leave, because the acting letters editor has published a piece saying that they received "a torrent of letters from interstate" about the carbon tax but none of them were printed. All of those letters would have opposed the tax. Instead they have printed letters supporting the tax from the same tired old left wingers who are constantly getting their drivel into the paper, including that bitch Rosemary Walters from Palmerston (ACT) who nearly always gets a letter printed at least once a week.
By contrast, every other newspaper has carried outrage from mainstream Aussies over the carbon tax. I have little doubt that, as the political and social climate in this country continues to move back to the mainstream Right, The Canberra Times will move further and further to the hard left. The paper acts as a barometer on the national sentiment. Whatever they support, you can bet your bottom dollar that Aussies are dead against it.
