=0A=0AMary K. said...=0A"Tony, can the dinosaur list help in any way? Is th= ere a petition, letter =0Awriting campaign, etc.? "=0A=0AI appreciate the o= ffer of help. Thank you all. BUT... not right at the moment. The game is st= ill in progress, and petitions/letters etc. have to be carefully timed, or = they may be counter-productive.=0A=0AThe Barnett government is beautifully = adapted to survive storms of protest. It clings like a limpet to its prefer= red beliefs (however idiotic or baseless), and storms of protest will merel= y bounce off its carapace, like ping-pong balls bouncing off a Sherman tank= . It thrives on protest! Public protest merely provides another opportunity= to broadcast (and reinforce) its propaganda in the news media.=0A=0AIf you= make any protest, you will be classified and treated as one of the 'long-h= aired loony left, reds, anarchists, greenies, crackpots, dissidents... etc.= [it's a LONG list]' and you will be ignored. At best you'll receive some r= eassuring noises telling you that there's nothing to worry about. =0A=0APet= itions and protest can also be counter-productive if they prove annoying: d= ecision-makers tend to get a bit frustrated, and even vindictive, when sack= s of (sometimes) abusive and (often) ill-informed mail keep landing on thei= r desk every morning. It can reinforce their determination to succeed, rath= er than persuade them to change their minds.=0A=0AI hate to sound machiavel= lian, but protest has to be well-timed for maximum effect. At some point in= this saga a very large section of the Australian population is going to ri= se up in protest at this proposal to destroy the Kimberley, and as the fede= ral government is teetering on the brink (with a very small and insecure mi= nority). it's not likely to make any decision that would bring about its on= downfall. So, when the decision gets to that knife-edge point... THEN you = throw in your international protest and push them over to the side of cauti= on and common sense.=0A=0AIf you protest now, it will just be wasted effort= . You will believe that you've done your bit to help, the best you can (whi= ch is true), but it won't have any effect. Wait for the opportune moment: I= 'll yell for help when it's needed, be sure of that!=0A=0ATony Thulborn=0A= =0A[Sorry for mangled earlier attempts to send messages;=A0 I have new - an= d bleed'n unintelligible! -=A0 e-mail system.=A0=A0 Whatever happened to cl= ay tablets?=A0 We never had this problem with clay... not good in wet weath= er, I admit, but you could understand it intuitively...]=A0=A0