The average March in March protester

The main stream media, at least on the east coast, just about completely ignored the March in March protests. When they did talk about it they often dismissed the protests as being a bunch of radicals fringe dwellers that wasn't representative of the Australian community. Radical leftie pinko scum, or some shit like that, who were unorganised, with a grab bag of issues that mostly was about a dislike for Abbott. This despite the protests being some of the biggest since the Vietnam war. Indeed the reporting from Europe and the US was much more balanced and fair than the drivel we got here.

Now there's been a bit of a study into just what sort of people attended the marches. Not surprisingly, they're not radical leftie pinko scum. They're in fact well educated people drawn together not by a political party but by the lack of representation of their views in the main two political parties.

I would say we didn't find representation in the main stream media s well.

Dr Jensen he was surprised to find Getup was the most common political association held by the surveyed protesters, with more than 37 per cent as identifying as members, even though the event was not arranged or promoted by the activist organisation. 

Just 11 per cent were the member of a political party, while 15 per cent were members of a trade union. 

Dr Jensen said given the protests was directed against the government, traditionally the main opposition party or a formal left of centre political group would have a significant, vocal role in their organising, but in this case they did not. 

“There does seem to be a particular segment of the population that Getup represents in some way, even if they don't officially organise them, that's perhaps not represented by any of the parties either,” he said. 

Dr Jensen said while the treatment of asylum seekers was an issue commonly spoken about in Australia, but both major parties were united in presenting strong policies on offshore processing and insisting refugees had no guarantee of being settled in Australia. 

“It may be the case that [protesters] don't see an avenue for their interests being articulated in the major parties, either in the opposition or the government, so perhaps they feel they need to mobilise by other means that do not depend on some formal organisational structure to get their views out there,” he said 

Protesters were also more educated than the general population, more than half had a bachelor degree or higher, the survey found. Read more