We launched a face-book site called Project 18C after a Sydney forum discussion on
November 2013 about the Abbott promises to change the RDA. By March 2014, our
daily newsfeeds were regularly hitting over 2000. We decided that local councils
across Australia provided the closest link to local communities. It became successful
because local councils could ignore the George Brandis’ short and inconvenient April
30 2014 deadline and be aware of each other’s progress on our Facebook tally board.
Project 18C worked behind the scenes to work on optimal pathways with selected
councillors regardless of his or her political allegiance, and whether or not, most
mayors were Liberal party aligned.
By working close to the ground, we were getting resolutions up even though there was consistent Liberal blocking, lots of shadow boxing, and modification of our resolution templates. We personally spoke at various councils and the local bigots showed up in droves. We had incredible support from the MPs and Senators from the Greens at State and Federal level who guided us to the right persons around Australia. After two more hard months, Victoria and NSW went viral, then S.A. and W.A came on board. SBS, Guardian, Channel 10, ABC News started to kick in with updates and local newspapers published 100’s of articles as it reached
main stream. We reached a national score of 50 councils by end June. By the early August 2014, we secured Albury, Fremantle, Hobart, Greater Taree, and we had assisted a total of 75 councils to pressure the government to drop proposals to water down 18C. There were 40 councils still in the progress when Abbott finally tossed it in and the Government relented.
