WHILE numbers were down at yesterday’s May Day rally, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the 200 people who marched from Cook Park to Robertson Park, loudly protesting state government funding cuts.
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Protesters expressed a range of concerns from poor patient-to-nurse ratios to the dangers of amateur hunting in national parks.
Christine Cantrill, whose son James Cantrill was badly hurt in a car accident while travelling to work last year, walked with her family alongside a truck carrying her son’s badly-damaged vehicle.
Mr Cantrill was one of the first people in NSW to be denied workers’ compensation under changes to the law.
Mrs Cantrill said it was important for people to know how these changes affected all workers, not just her son.
“Most people are not aware that they’re now not covered going and coming home from work,” she said.
“The government has not let people know.”
Mrs Cantrill said deciding to participate in the rally was not easy.
“We’ve never been involved in any type of protest before, but I’m not a fence sitter,” she said.
Mrs Cantrill said changes to workers compensation laws would not affect city workers as much as country people who are forced to travel further distances in more dangerous conditions.
Orange Regional Gallery director Alan Sisley said his fears about state government cuts were not confined to the arts sector, although he listed cuts to art teachers at Orange TAFE as one of his bugbears.
In an address to protesters before the rally kicked off, Mr Sisley acknowledged the arts was not the only sector at risk of further cuts.
“We feel very strongly that the way the government is operating things at the moment is essentially unreasonable,” Mr Sisley said.
“They seem so far removed from issues affecting rural life they may as well be based in America, not Sydney.”
Mr Sisley said the protesters were reasonable people loudly voicing their displeasure at government budget cuts.
May Day march organiser and Central West Community Union Alliance member Joe Maric said the protest proved a good opportunity for the community to air their grievances about a range of topics.
“It lets people know what’s going on and reminds people what the Labor movement has achieved over the years since the first May Day rally was held in Queensland in 1856,” he said.
“We need to work towards building the May Day rally into something significant in the f uture.”
March a fizzer, says Gee
MEMBER for Orange Andrew Gee attacked yesterday’s May Day march saying it proved the increasing irrelevance of unions in modern society.
“It was talked up as Anzac Day for workers when thousands from around the central west would march, but embarrassingly few ended up participating,” he said.
“The union membership went absent without leave.”
Mr Gee said union membership had been dwindling for 20 years.
“You only have to look at the numbers who turned up on Sunday,” he said.
“They were talking 1000 or 2000 people and they only got a fraction of that.
“After all the hype it was a real fizzer. They would have been lucky to get much over 100.”
Mr Gee said rather than protest the current NSW government, the trade union movement needed to take responsibility for the mess the Labor Party left NSW in, and the poor performance of the federal Labor government.
“The unions are the ones who control the Labor Party,” he said.
“They control the conferences, install the state and federal Labor MPs and they’re currently propping up Julia Gillard.”
Mr Gee said the unions ran NSW via the Labor Party for 16 years.
“NSW went from being the number one state in Australia to a cellar dweller under their watch,” he said.
“They took the state to the edge of economic oblivion and now they complain about the new Coalition government?
“ Give me a break.”
tracey.prisk@fairfaxmedia.com.au
