WRITE UPS

Organiser/BRONZ Otago Secretary

ACC Protest Ride 14^th November 2009

 When I started to organise this protest ride against the proposed ACC levy increase, I never imagined it would be so successful. 

It started out at a BRONZ general meeting, deciding to go ahead with the ride and that it was the South's turn to show we strongly disagreed with the proposal and needed to be heard. When I woke the next morning I became a women on a mission and what followed in the next week leading up to the ride was countless emails and phone calls and at times feeling like me head was going to explode.

On the morning of the protest ride my first thought was the weather and when I looked out the window to see it was fine that was my first sense of relief.  Tania and myself got on our bikes and rode out to Mosgiel, to be there at 9am so I could watch what was about to unfold, within five minutes a couple of motorbikes showed up and we were informed that more from down south were on their way.  At around 9:30ish I did a quick count got to 50ish looked around at more coming in and gave up. They were coming in droves and there was my second sense of relief.

Ask anyone around me at the time and I'm sure they will tell you I couldn't stop grinning and there is photo's to prove it. To see that this was turning out to be huge, well beyond my expectations, made me so proud to be apart of it.

Before we set off, Scooter lead a team talk, thanking everyone for turning out and informing them of the plan of the ride.  We then geared up and started to file out, going on to the motorway and then the one way system, with people standing on over bridges to wave to us, we turned onto the main street  from Fredrick Street and rode the main street into the Octagon. What an impressive sight to see over 500 motorbikes coming up the main street and they kept coming.

Ron opened the speeches with a speech of his own and then to our guest speakers, David Parker, Pete Hodgson and Claire Curran.  All of which were in support of us the motorcyclists and strongly believe the proposal is an unfair increase and we are being unfairly targeted. There were two other protest rides that day in Auckland and Christchurch, so if the government isn't getting the message by now I will be very surprised.

The total number that turned out in Dunedin was 576! Wow that is amazing. Thank you to everyone who showed up and rode to be heard against this issue. Thank you to Blackie Catlow at the Mosgiel Station function Centre for putting on free coffee, tea and toilet facilities. Thank you to the people that helped me put this together, I couldn't have done without your support. And thank you to our guest speakers for you support, we will continue to fight this and be heard.

For photos and video footage see the BRONZ Otago Facebook page.

Cheers

Nat

BRONZ Otago Secretary