I watched "Q and A," on the evening that students
protested and took over the show. And I have to
admit that while I could sympathise with their
cause - I felt that the demostration went on for far too
long - and became unacceptable. To me it obstructed the
basic exchange of ideas and infringed upon the rights of
others.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for protests and demonstrations.
I feel that protests are a necessary and acceptable means
of expression. However to me, protest becomes unacceptable
when it becomes violent, and does obstruct the rights of
others - (for example, people sitting on tram tracks and
blocking the flow of traffic), to peaceful assembly, orderly protest, free exchange of ideas.

I would be interested to hear the thoughts of others on this
forum.

Should there be guidelines for protests and demonstrations?

yes foxey lady/there are rules..rEGARDING PROTEST.
number one is the second persn to join you has been sent by mossad asio..etc[lest we forget bob brown resigned as it was beginning to emerge he was some spy..for cia..AND BOB JUST WENT AWAY.

THING IS PROTEST DONT WORK
that ukrane postest ciot 6 billion dolars to AGRETATE AND EMPOWER..FOLKS SUCH AS GEORGE SPRROWS..REAP IN HEAPS..via financing ngo's douing a forgeign take over..[protests dont work/the best people need to go to work.tomorrow..and all that remans is the narcs and stooges sent in to spy.

now adays we just need motivate our peer networks[or begin a topic on face book/or play the twitter hash mark game/linking it to other further topics..

so sure we got a right to protest
but no way of enforcing others to obey our/commands
any more than they can command me..and still they try..and stILL I RESIST.

MY LATEST ONE IS IM NOT CONSUMING..[DEFAULTING ON MY POWER BILL]
BECVAUSE ITS INSANE THEY CAN DOUBLE..IT..AT WHIM/TO PAY OFF ODIOUS DEBT[THAT IN REALITY BY BEING ;'CRIMINAL DEBT'..ISNT COLLECTABLE AS IT WAS INSTALLED BY COLLUDING FRAUD/high criminal treasons

ANYHOW/TWO WAY PLAN..govt gets no more[not one cent]
unless..it begins sending people to jail...they know who they are
the proceeds of crime cannot gain lawfull titLE...WE HAVE THE PROCEEEDS OF CRIME ACT..GO AHEAD MAKE MY DAY/FORCE ME TO PAY

VOTE NONE OF THE ABOVE
[THIS MEANS YOUR FIRED/THEN WAIT TILL THE DAY INFORMAL-51 PERCENT.]

Foxy, I expect your thread to invoke indignation from the 'Usual Suspects' with howls of angst about the 'great unwashed' and 'rent-a-crowd', and of course the 'professional protesters' who are out to disrupt polite society. This of course will be tempered with the compunctious line, "yes..., well..., they do have the right to protest of course, BUT! it should be done without disruption, and in some inconspicuous manner." In other words, out of sight, out of mind.
My view is, the right to protest is a basic tenet of any democratic society. The outcome of protest is for society to judge. Some will judge protest harshly all the time, others will sympathise, but disagree, whilst others will be fully supportive.
Often issues of protest can make for strange bed fellows, take CSG, farmers combining with Greens to express their disapproval through protest.

Foxy,
Yep you make good sense –now that’s the second time in 12 months you've said something I can agree with.

Meanwhile, poor old Paul is still regurgitating the clichés they fed him at Greenie Sunday school.

I doubt that many in todays Oz would deny the right to protest. What they take exception to is when some groups -–and they're are usually from the left fringe (Pauls bedfellows of choice)— take the view that they have the right to disrupt the rest of society (and do so repeatedly) if it doesn’t conform to their higher divinely received morality.

Youth in particular should never be encouraged to believe that what they say goes unheard, that there are no real avenues for them to express themselves and that they cannot influence decisions that affect them. Evan Pederick might be an example (Hilton Hotel bombing).

There are always those nasty individuals and outfits around who use and abuse vulnerable, impassioned youth for their own secondary gain, even if that is only to hunt headlines while the youths concerned, sometimes school children, some away doubly confused, victims of the political lobbyists and malcontents who gulled them and probably placed them at risk of injury and arrest.

A very difficult task for any citizens with a legitimate protest is how to keep themselves and their issues separate from the noisy, trouble-making serial activists who would jump on the wagon and try to steer it towards their own ends. When that happens, society cannot be blamed for tarring all present with the same brush - 'Fly with the crows and be shot at'.

A common complaint of local members is that they are forever hearing from the squeaky wheels. They would very much like to hear from the huge mass of ordinary upstanding citizens ho are always too busty working, taking care of their families and so on to tell their local member what they are happy with and would like continued and of course, what they would like to see a change in emphasis.

This is what we should be promoting,
http://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/

Correction,

Instead of "ho" and "busty" in my second last para, make that 'who' and 'busy'.

Sorry for the boobs.