Convoys of No Confidence; News.

The leaders of the various groups within the overall convoy are rather busy, and difficult to get hold of. For this reason it is difficult to get first hand news. The routes of the groups on the road at present involve long distance driving and as such it is probably best to let them get on with it.

Currently, there is a report from Darryl Pederson from Convoy 2, (Cairns). He reports that they have reached Charters Towers, which has closed the main drag off for a celebratory street parade. He counted 75 vehicles at Cardwell but more have been joining in along the route. He is unable to say how many are present now, but the showgrounds where they are camping are packed full.

In a round up of news from around the country, the Katherine Times reports:

A Convoy of more than 100 vehicles - including road trains, campervans and utes - rolled into Katherine last night to show their support for the Convoy of no Confidence, a convoy heading to Canberra to raise a voice against recent government decisions.

Rashida Khan, who led a trail of vehicles from Darwin to Katherine yesterday, said she was on her way to Canberra to speak up for "some of the toughest people" she knows, who "have been pushed to the edge by the decision to ban live export." "And I don't know how much further you can push these people," Ms Khan said.

"It is time to make Australia and the government aware of what is happening to the people who were used to work from sunrise to sunset to muster their cattle, to breed for live export, to truck their animals across the country.”

The 23-year-old animal nutritionist, who comes from a background of cattle and land management, said she was "stunned" by the support the Convoy of no Confidence had received along the way from Darwin to Katherine.

The Sydney Morning Herald Reports:

About 50 people in 23 trucks, vans and cars joined the convoy that left Perth's Belmont racecourse early on Thursday. …

Signs on the sides of the Perth protest vehicles read "Election now", "Axe the Tax" and in reference to the Gillard government, "Wouldn't trust you to run a chook raffle.” One woman held up a sign depicting Ms Gillard as a redback spider weaving a "web of deceit."

Janet Thompson, organiser of the Perth convoy, said it was a movement of people concerned about over-regulation. She said she feared the carbon tax would become "a huge, huge bureaucratic nightmare."

Perth truck driver Gordon Crawford said Labor wasn't running the country and Ms Gillard had been "puppetised" by Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown who was "way too radical."

The Canberra Times reports on route changes:

Several of the 11 routes for the Convoy of No Confidence have been altered to lessen the inconvenience for towns along the route as drivers travel to the Monday rally. The 300-strong village of Wallendbeen is one of the late additions to the list of convoy pit-stops.

Owner of the Wallendbeen Hotel Kerry Murphy said she was informed about a week ago, but was still unclear on the details of the Sunday night stop-over. ''We don't know how many people are coming yet,'' she said. ''It started with 200 but now its up to 3000 ...

Mrs Murphy said a number of locals had offered to pitch in by hosting barbecues and working behind the bar.

Another route change involves a convoy deciding to travel directly to Canberra rather than stopping off in Marulan as originally planned on Sunday night. Convoy leader Ken Wilkie said the change was made due to concerns from the Australian Federal Police about traffic congestion for Canberra workers on Monday morning.

The people doing this trip are highly motivated and determined. They would have to be given the huge distances being traveled. Some of the truckers estimate their fuel costs to be in the order of $4-7,000, which they are meeting out of their own pockets. This is not something they do frivolously, they have to have a damn good reason; and have. We wish them a safe trip and to be heard.