A former soldier has caused traffic chaos in Sydney this morning after climbing to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a protest about access to his children. The bridge was closed for more than 2 hours as the protestor unfurled banners and then abseiled down. All Sydney’s radio stations covered the protest, but the soldier, a veteran of four war zone deployments, got his message across by talking to Triple M.
The soldier, named Mick, unfurled two banners with the messages ‘plz help my kids’ and ‘kids first.’ Speaking to the Grill team’s Mark Geyer, Mick said “MG you of all people would know what its like mate… blokes can get pretty proud.”
He told the Triple M breakfast crew at about 6am, “what I’d like to see is some policy changes in the end.”
“There are systematic fails in both federal and state governments …. the police and also the school systems that are letting our children down. And the children don’t have a voice… There is a major failure in the fact that there’s no-one looking after our kids when parents separate and divorce. I’ve been pushed and pushed and pushed. I’m not just doing this for me, I’m doing this for my kids.”
At about 7.30 Mick finished his protest and came down. About 15 minutes later the bridge was reopened. 2GB’s Alan Jones also spoke to Mick during his protest and promised to talk to people at DOCS to help him address his issues if he would just come down. Listen to Alan’s discussion with Mick here.
While Triple M talkback callers and Facebook Fans were generally sympathetic to the protestor they were also angry about the massive disruption to their Friday the 13th commute to work.
Triple M had a reporter on the scene quickly and also covered it on the Grill Team’s twitter feed. The protestor was arrested when he came back to the ground.
He also got his message across by speaking to the Today Show and Alan Jones.
The questions has to be asked. Are producers of these programs so fixed on getting the scoop that they forget that what the guy was going was illegal? The effect it had on Sydney's commuters was lost in being "FIRST WITH THE STORY"! For gods sake you fools! Listen to the audio... not once did the guys ask "do you realize the effect you having on the people of Sydney. The people who have missed their flights costing them money, the people who got their butts kicked for being late to work. The people who missed that all important meeting, the people who are stranded on Sydney's buses and trains. No.....all they wanted to do was be first with the "scoop". Once again Sydney's media lets Sydney down. Plus did anyone think that this guy may have got his idea from the bloke who dumped a load of dirt on the Harbour Bridge? It was pretty well publicized by Sydney Media..