Statistical manipulation
It is with a profound sense of “oh give it up already” that I note the Greens and the anti-HuntFest brigade are still at it with their claims of majority opposition to HuntFest.
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As David Shoebridge MP (The Greens) recently confirmed in his response to my BDN opinion piece, the Greens and SAFE maintain a staggering 80 per cent of the Eurobodalla community opposes HuntFest.
Mr Shoebridge also confirmed that this 80 per cent statistic is based on the responses received during a consultation process Eurobodalla Council held about HuntFest’s event licence, which resulted in council receiving around 166 submissions (mostly emails) from people who oppose the event.
The anti-Festers claim it is legitimate to extrapolate these 166 negative submissions from a total Eurobodalla population of 37,230-plus residents as evidence of majority opposition to HuntFest and in fact hunting in general.
The Greens claim their support of the anti-HuntFest push is not driven by their anti-hunting, anti-bows/guns ideology, but rather they are simply conscientiously striving to uphold the tenets of democracy.
Well, let’s put the proverbial shoe on the other foot for a moment and apply the Greens’ approach to democracy and statistical manipulation to something they very firmly support.
Not so long ago, Eurobodalla Councillor Gabi Harding (The Greens) pressed council to write a letter of support for marriage equality to the NSW Government on behalf of the residents of the Eurobodalla.
Unlike the case of HuntFest, Cr Harding sought no community consultation to establish the will of the people on this emotive issue and whether marriage equality is a good or a bad thing is not the point of my analogy.
My point is this.
Had council instituted a consultation process and had 166 people written to council vehemently opposing “gay marriage”, would the Greens concede that 80 per cent of the Eurobodalla opposed marriage equality?
Or would the Greens claim the 166 submissions reflected the views of just .04 of one per cent of the Eurobodalla’s 37,000-plus residents, who are detestable homophobes whose minority opinion should be treated with all the contempt one accords the views of bigots?
Oh, what a tangled web Greens weave, when they use statistics to deceive.
A poor response to a consultative process can never be considered a mandate for action, except by political manipulators.
What it does reflect is the fact that when moderate people (as distinct from fanatical ideologues) are neither opposed to a proposition nor supportive of it, when they wonder what on earth all the hue and cry is about and simply wish people would let it go and get a life, they do not bother writing submissions to council.
Garry Mallard
Bega
Public interest
The publicly owned sports and leisure centre in the main street of Narooma was intended for activities that contribute to the wellbeing of the community and its children.
The Police Citizens Youth Club satisfies this criterion and is appreciated for the work it does.
The building it occupies on Crown land was never intended to be used as a retail outlet for guns in conjunction with a celebration of hunting.
Gun proliferation is abhorrent to most Australians and council does the area a disservice by letting it appear as if our community condones it.
Making gun ownership accessible and desirable in a festival atmosphere runs the risk of influencing vulnerable children to believe that that killing is easy and fun.
If the HuntFest people are proud of what they are doing, why was an ABC TV crew prevented beyond the gate?
Susan Cruttenden
Dalmeny