Roe 8: Labor is just using the issue for political hay-making.
Camera IconRoe 8: Labor is just using the issue for political hay-making. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Opinion: Roe 8 protests are hypocritical

Ian Thurston, BanjupFremantle Gazette

THE Roe 8 protests are a toxic mix of hypocrisy and power politics.

In October 2015, 40 hectares of virgin bushland (not the 7 at Bibra Lake) were cleared at Jandakot Airport, not 7km from the Roe 8 works.

Yet there was not one protest at the flattening of thousands of banksias that were habitat to cockatoos, kangaroos, bandicoots, and a myriad others.

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Not one tear was shed, not one person chained themselves to a tree or to an earthmover.

The selective indignation of the green movement is an appalling hypocrisy.

There are as many credible arguments for building Roe 8 as there are against.

The average elector would be hard put to evaluate the better case.

What is clear, though, is that the Labor Party has seized upon Roe 8 as a differentiator and is using the hypocritical emotion around it as an election issue.

Labor should beware, though, of aligning itself with the dreadlocks and thumb-locks brigade – he who sups with the devil should have a long spoon.

Electors should be realistic about what is happening and see the hypocrisy and power politics for what they are.

IAN THURSTON,

Banjup.