Public support coming our way

[taff1954]

I've been really pleased, and a little surprised, with the level of support coming our way from the non - motorcycling public. I've been hearing a lot of "go for it you guys" at work, at the servo, everywhere.

The best, and most interesting comment came this evening from a bloke who admits he's always been scared of motorbikes His comment was 'I wonder if Key, Smith and English are hearing Admiral Yamamoto's words?'

Those words? - I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve

[Bren]

I really believe that the motorcycling community is a force to be reckoned with...We may not have huge numbers but we are passionate in what we do. It is also a very diverse community with a lot of professionals in it including lawyers and such. we are not all just a rabble of uneducated rednecks...(only some of us)...

Indeed they may have just awaken a sleeping giant. Isoroku Yamamoto was killed flying reconnaissance, lets shoot down these other bastards!!!

[BMWST?]

I've been really pleased, and a little surprised, with the level of support coming our way from the non - motorcycling public. I've been hearing a lot of "go for it you guys" at work, at the servo, everywhere.

The best, and most interesting comment came this evening from a bloke who admits he's always been scared of motorbikes His comment was 'I wonder if Key, Smith and English are hearing Admiral Yamamoto's words?'

Those words? - I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve

we are a long way of winning yet.Nick Smith turned up at Wellington at the end of the "rally" and he had reasonable arguments to refute every point that was raised.
A story was told of a biker(well paid) who was on ACC (80 percent of his income) for 10 years .He was GIVEN a small 4wd by acc cos he could not drive his own car any more.They are the sort of payment regimes that rack up 62 Million very quickly.

[StoneY]

Yes and yes, and yeas again, we are right now the publics wee 'oh those poor biker' darlings

we are oozing sympathy so lets capitalize on it. Get 'look for biker' campaigns going, safety initiatives, make the public see us and use this good fuzzy feelings to win hearts

sorry 4th glass of red....Nicky 0 StoneY 1

[taff1954]

I'm not for a moment suggesting we are anywhere near winning, what intrigued me was this guys comment was based on the fact that he had, up until a few days ago, no idea how many bikers there are in this country, and thet they could pull together. What is does show is that it's not only bikers who are anti the levy increases.

[nothingflash]

sorry 4th glass of red....

Good on ya - you deserve it!

[Ocean1]

WHy don't we start compiling our own data set?

We can start with each of us adding up what we paid ACC last year. Probably not possible to have you break it down into sector/account payments but if you can it'd help.

For me it was about $6,000, I could detail that if there's enough support for the idea.

[davereid]

A story was told of a biker(well paid) who was on ACC (80 percent of his income) for 10 years .He was GIVEN a small 4wd by acc cos he could not drive his own car any more.They are the sort of payment regimes that rack up 62 Million very quickly.

My stepson had a diving accident and is now a full care tetraplegic.

ACC has meant he has the best possible care available in the entire world, and there is no insurance scheme that as a teenager he would have been involved in that would work as well as ACC has.

Its completely irrelevant that he was diving. It should also be completely irrelevant that he was playing rugby, hockey, mountain biking, or motorcycling.

It was even irrelevant that as a teenager he had no insurance and had never paid a dollar into ACC.

We simply don't need to get drawn into these arguments.

[Pixie]

we are not all just a rabble of uneducated rednecks.....

Speak for yourself

[StoneY]

we are a long way of winning yet.Nick Smith turned up at Wellington at the end of the "rally" and he had reasonable arguments to refute every point that was raised.

Paul, I went head to head with Nicky boy for 5 minutes, and won point after point.
He had the flawed numbers, he had nothing new or of value, and if a dunce like me out debated him (in Hawkeye and Laxi's presence no less) then someone like Kari (Nasty to us) with the real facts for ammo will pwn his sorry ass (gamer term for OWNED! boom headshot!)

He waited till the whole rally had completely dispersed, I was the only 'organizer' left there, Ulysses, the 'hosts' were gone too and as the BIKEOI guy got some facetime


Mind you he has a good sense of humor, we laughed about the 'shit head' and he reckons he might buy it for his patio!
Beyond the ACC bs and partyline crap he seemed like a nice enough bloke, but maybe he should have come out 10 minutes earlier?

[idleidolidyll]

I've noticed a distinct disconnect in this whole debate: it is being framed as bikers vs the ACC.

Get this straight, it is the GOVERNMENT driving this change not the ACC dept. ACC are told what to do by govt and guided by govt policy.
This is nothing less than the first step in the planned destructiojn of one of the best social benefit systems on the planet in order to privatise the industry on behalf of (mostly) foreign interests.

Don't scream at the ACC, scream and shout at National, ACT and the Maori Parties who are behind this disgrace. If you don't, you have been completely suckered by the egenda setters.

I was at the Manukau rally yesterday and I saw mainly men out there participating. National and ACT are mainly supported by males and it is likely therefore that the majority of you voted for the parties that are behind this. If you really give a damn; tell your MP that you are a National, ACT or Maori party voter and you are pissed, so pissed you will be giving your vote to Labour or the Greens: nothing less will change their minds.

As for action: good on yer for the work Ulysseus but I disagree; we need disruptive action in order to get media coverage and put our points across directly. The media is owned by big business and it is not in the interest of their advertisers to frame this debate in our favour. Only we will get the story out; editors won't go far enough as they are always cognisant of the effect on their advertising income.

This ACC levy increase is NATIONAL Party policy! You voted them in, did you not expect them to fuck you over (again) just as they tried to do last time they had power?

[Mully]

I've noticed since this first broke that we seem to have a lot of the public on-side with this - along the lines of "I'm not a biker, but that's not fair"

We need to keep this momentum. Which is why we need to not have idiots doing wheelies or burnouts on protest rides.

The only thing politicians will listen to is sheer numbers of people saying "I do not approve of this". Hopefully, now that the Greens and Labour are vocally onside, we can use their media whoring for the powers for good.

[cheshirecat]

I've noticed since this first broke that we seem to have a lot of the public on-side with this - along the lines of "I'm not a biker, but that's not fair"

We need to keep this momentum. Which is why we need to not have idiots doing wheelies or burnouts on protest rides.

The only thing politicians will listen to is sheer numbers of people saying "I do not approve of this". Hopefully, now that the Greens and Labour are vocally onside, we can use their media whoring for the powers for good.

Agree.
Politicians (Labour) Welly council, Police (only saw two) seemed happy. Everyone was brilliant, hundreds of bikers organised themselves, didn't cause any traffic disruption and parked sensibly in a small area. Good humour, kids around. We didn't alienate anyone except those who were targeted - National Party/ACC.
it was also a good argument for Welly parking

[Ixion]

I've noticed a distinct disconnect in this whole debate: it is being framed as bikers vs the ACC.

Which is why the protests are going to Parliament and not the ACC offices? And why Auckland bikers are flash mobbing national electorate offices and conferences? Yo're behind the fair, mate. We all made that connection weeks ago.

We DO have the public on our side. We may be absolutely certain of that because if we didn't there is no way Labour would have publically swung behind us. And their analysis of public opinion wil be far more comprehensive than anything we could do

There is an element within the National party that is almost obsessionally fascinated by the NSW anti-biker laws. And want the same thing in this country.

I'm quite sure that in their mind , and in John Judge's, motorcyclist morphed into biker morphed into bikie morphed into gang

They never expected any strong protest (how much protest have they had about the far more exacting laws passed against boy racers?) . And they thought if there were it would be easy to portray us as greasy anti-social Neanderthals communicating in grunts and yells.

And now it's all gone wrong. The public are on OUR side, and they (ACC and Nats) are standing up against a whole spectrum of people none of whom fit the stereotype.

They don't know how to handle it, and I suspect that around now they're starting to look for an out.

Labour obvious intend to make a last ditch stand against the ACC changes (not just our levies). The Nats will NOT want that opposition being fronted by a popular and very media friendly opposition to motorcycle levies.

In John Key's vision whatever we cost ACC is chicken feed. The damage the government are taking already is far greater.

This is winnable. Not won, and it won't be easy, or painless. But it's winnable.

[MIXONE]

I think the way the protests are going at the moment is the right way.Keep Joe Public onside and of course we are going to get Labour support.Let's face it they are polies so anything to get one over the opposion.
However if the govt. still isn't listening after the 17th I for one would be quite willing to do a burnout on the front steps of the beehive.