The Transport Minister Terry Mulder “has dismissed east-west link protesters as a “rent-a-crowd”.

He made these remarks in respect to last Saturday’s weekend protest at Smith Reserve, Fitzroy and added that it was poorly attended.  He then went on to incorrectly comment that “When you took away the rent-a-crowd, councillors, their supporters, some of the Labor members of parliament who joined them, it was a very, very small crowd for what is the biggest infrastructure project Victoria is embarking on … (only) a bout 100 people had reportedly turned up, the minister said”.

This is simply not correct – it was not a Yarra Council event and the numbers of locals present exceeded the number of councilors and politicians who turned out to support the local community.  In fact over 150 local people attended. Continue Reading…