Greens

Mark Latham is notoriously harsh and personal in his choice of language. It was one of the things which made him unelectable as prime minister and which saw him shred every friendship he ever had upon making his furious exit from parliamentary life.

At the same time Latham can also make sense. His analysis may often be brutal and poorly-timed but it is often also right. He was 100 per cent right when he said on Sunday that the people who advocate the onshore processing of asylum seekers, on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, are creating a situation where desperate people will risk their lives at the hands of people smugglers in the dangerous hope of making it to the Australian mainland.

Of course Latham could have easily avoided insinuating that the likes of Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young and the Labor Party’s Left Faction had effectively killed the 200-odd men, women and children whose bodies were still being picked out of the sea off the coast of Java.

Continue reading "Killed with kindness: onshore processing is a deadly policy" »

The Australian Greens may well be a sanctimonious blight on the national political landscape but I don’t see why they should be teased for eating lentils or tofu.

There is nothing wrong with lentils at all. They’re terrific. Dhal rocks, as does lentil salad with mint, peas, red onion and feta, and stewed lentils make the perfect base for a grilled sausage.

Anyone who doesn’t like tofu should try the kick-arse Chinese dish mapo tofu, which is fresh tofu served with spring onions, minced pork and heaps of chilli. If that still doesn’t work they should get along to a little place called Barbecue City in Adelaide’s Chinatown and order the tofu with broad beans and pickled cabbage. While there is nothing smart or clever about vegetarianism there is also nothing wrong with eating vegetables, and this vegetable dish is one of the best going around.

Continue reading "Tofu-munching Greens are cooking up a big fat tax" »

With significant diversions during Federal Parliament last week one of the more contemptible political back flips in recent memory might have escaped your notice.

Without a blush, Labor - supported by the Greens in the Senate - took $700 a year from 21,000 parents to fund its reform agenda for the childcare industry.

A little explanatory background is needed.

Continue reading "Labor, Greens take chainsaw to your childcare benefits" »

Australia, which includes the national government and parliament, faces a number of crucial issues.

A short list: the carbon tax; the two-speed economy; problems for the manufacturing sector; real difficulties in the steel industry; coal seam gas extraction versus prime farming land.

Further, there are serious worries about productivity levels; concern about the need for a review and revamp of the industrial laws, which everyone except the unions and the government are suggesting are too rigid.

Continue reading "Shut the hell up and get back to running the nation" »

It is customary for new Members and Senators to use part of their first speech to give some account of their careers before their election. Despite my entreaties that new Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon address her past, she used the usual dodge of whinging that critics were reviving a ‘new McCarthyism’.

Prior to her speech, there has been a battle going on at Wikipedia about her political history. Ever since April a number of people have been trying to write a full, honest and properly referenced account of Senator Rhiannon’s political career prior to 1990 when she joined the Greens. All those efforts have been thwarted by a person called Chris Maltby, who has systematically deleted her political history prior to 1990, by suppressing any version of the Wikipedia article which might be embarrassing to Senator Rhiannon.

So what are the facts about Senator Rhiannon’s past that the NSW Greens and Mr Maltby are so keen to stop you reading?

Continue reading "Whether she likes it or nyet, Lee Rhiannon was a Stalinist" »

This article was co-authored by Professor Douglas Kirsner, Ari Suss and Geoffrey Winn.

A militant campaign that singles out Israel alone in the world as worthy of boycott, divestment and sanctions has met with a surprising form of resistance. Michael Danby MP, the Member for Melbourne Ports, has been organizing these Hot Chocolate ‘sit-ins’ together with members of the ALP leadership and other public figures such as Gerard Henderson and Jana Wendt.

Gerard Henderson explained the context in his Sydney Morning Herald column Jews know acceptance still has its exceptions when he pointed to the 1930s British Fascists’ targeting and smashing up Jewish-owned shops in London’s East End.

After reading Henderson’s column,  Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd suggested to Danby that he join him for a hot chocolate at Max Brenner’s Melbourne CBD shop. That Max Brenner shop was the target of violent anti-Israel protest by BDS militants on July 1. The police made nineteen arrests during the violent protest.

Continue reading "Hot chocolate a cure for those who ignore history" »

Last week’s decision by the Independent Education Union of Australia to split from the Australian Council of Trade Unions because the ACTU supports the Green’s stance against non-government schools is the correct one.

On reading the Greens’ education policy document, there is no doubt that Catholic and independent schools are in the firing line.  While the Liberal-National Coalition is committed to properly funding such schools and respects their right to manage themselves, the Greens are dedicated to cutting funding and destroying the autonomy such schools currently enjoy.

Given that the Gillard-led government is beholden to the Greens for its continued survival, and the equivocal nature of its commitment to properly funding non-government schools, then there is every chance that those opposed to Catholic and independent schools will get their way. 

Continue reading "Green with class envy and bent on change" »

Julia Gillard is asking many in middle Australia, maybe half of the electorate, if they are prepared to forego around $1 a day to prevent climate change getting a lot worse.

She is arguing that the $1 is a fair and realistic investment with a worthy and guaranteed dividend.

That’s the essential message from the huge bundle of spending and levying and tax cutting announced yesterday with the release of the carbon pollution pricing scheme.

Continue reading "Gillard’s won this skirmish but there’s a battle ahead" »

The second most appallingly idiotic consequence of the Greens’ decision to block an emissions trading scheme – and let’s face it there is some very strong competition – is that it has managed to turn a debate over what to do about climate change into a debate over whether it is even real or not.

It’s hard to believe, but just a couple of years ago the vast majority of the public overwhelmingly supported action on man-made global warming and a comprehensive carbon pollution reduction scheme was all but inevitable, with strong bi-partisan support led by the top minds of the Labor and Liberal parties.

But then the flat-earth faction of the Coalition revolted and Malcolm Turnbull was assassinated in one of the more disappointing but thoroughly entertaining episodes of Australian politics. (Remember when Kevin Andrews was going to be Opposition Leader? Good times.)

Continue reading "ETS backflip makes me feel green about the gills" »

Next Wednesday night Nick Xenophon will host a party where, as per Greek tradition, guests will be invited to drink, eat and smash lots of plates.

This will symbolise Xenophon’s shattered hold on the Senate balance of power, and mark what he says is his increased irrelevance.

Former balance of power co-holder Steve Fielding has left the Upper House, and the Greens will have arrived in record numbers, ready to do Green business.

Continue reading "End of the (Parliamentary) world as we know it" »

This time last year Labor’s factional bosses were loading the bullets into the chamber so that Julia Gillard could pull the trigger on Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership. No-one saw it coming - even on the night of the coup the most senior members of the government were dismissing the reports as a beat-up – and few predicted the chaos which would ensue.

Caucus was so quick to fall into line that Kevin Rudd ducked a leadership ballot after confidantes advised he would receive a humiliating handful of votes. The party believed that Julia was its saviour and two months later it failed to win a majority, with Ms Gillard having taken the government from its unassailable 2007 landslide position to a shambolic day-to-day operation, reliant on the vagaries of rural independents and inner-city Greens.

The polls now all point to a comfortable Coalition win at the next election.

Continue reading "Nothing to celebrate on Julia’s 1st birthday as PM" »

The Federal Press Gallery’s Midwinter Ball was last night and this morning Bob Brown will be calculating how much contamination from big business he has received.

Senator Brown, the Greens leader, has attended past Midwinter Balls and to my knowledge has emerged with a smile and no scars.

This year he seemed to have forgotten what it is all about. The venue, the Great Hall of Parliament House, was “insidious”, he said recently. He was forced to dine with corporate executives, and it all resembled a strategy to divide and corrupt the Greens.

Continue reading "Brown’s getting his knickers in a twist over Ball" »

The world as we know it will end on July 1, this year. That is the day the Greens take power in the Senate. James Arvanitakis explains.

Not that long ago, I toyed with the idea of setting up my own doomsday cult. The problem is that I failed to find any of the basic ingredients that attract followers: charismatic leadership, the ability to ask for money from complete strangers, a doomsday message and a specific date to rally support. I have always been fascinated by doomsday cults. Every time I hear that a charismatic leader has picked a specific date for the end of the world – be it the arrival of extra terrestrials or the predicted Rapture – I get out my diary, mark the date and begin to make plans around it.

As readers of The Punch would know, the most recent episode was the claim by the Harold Camping and the crew over at Family Radio predicted the world would end on 21 May 2011. Using the date to rally friends and family, a group of buddies went out for a farewell bonding session a few days beforehand. I also organised a weekend to enjoy time with loved ones just in case. To tie things up I also left a farewell message on my Facebook page and completed all my marking.

Continue reading "It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel Green" »

So Archbishop Desmond Tutu has congratulated the Marrickville Council for their temporary boycott of Israeli products. But living a Zionist-free life is actually much harder than most people probably think. This fact finally dawned on the Council earlier this year, when they were forced to concede that their attempt to boycott Israel as part of the global Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions campaign was “impractical and untenable.”

Yet last week in the Federal Parliament, the Labor Party watered down a motion moved in the House of Representatives by Julie Bishop on the issue, voting to remove the condemnation of Marrickville Council contained in the original motion.

The reasoning behind Labor’s refusal to condemn Marrickville Council remains opaque. Perhaps some Labor MPs are sympathetic to the goal of removing Zionism in all its forms from their lives, or perhaps they are just afraid to incur the wrath of their Greens allies, some of whom - including Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne - still advocate for “in-principle” support of the boycott.

Continue reading "Living Zionist-free is Tutu hard" »

It has come to the attention of the Australian Greens and their supporters that members of the media have been questioning politicians about how policies such as the carbon tax will affect people’s lives. To its shame, even the ABC has succumbed to this disturbing trend.

A petition has been organised by activists on the GetUp! website urging the national broadcaster to pull 7.30 Report anchor Chris Uhlmann into line. In an interview last week Uhlmann had the temerity to ask Greens Leader Bob Brown whether he still believed Australia should phase out the coal industry. When Brown suggested that this was a wicked misrepresentation of his position by those of us in what he calls the “Murdoch hate media”, Uhlmann helpfully reminded the Greens Leader that it was actually a direct statement by Brown himself in an opinion piece he authored just four years ago.

Details, details.

Continue reading "Grizzling Greens want power without scrutiny" »

The “Statement of Principles” signed by the timber industry, the timber union and environmental organisations late last year is easily the best chance for decades to end Tasmania’s debilitating “forest wars”.

Every single organisation that signed on took a risk.  A risk that the process would founder through Government intransigence, a risk of being outflanked and denounced by opportunists within their own constituencies, a risk that circumstances may deliver outcomes for their traditional opponents, but not for their own interests.

One of the most fascinating issues now that we have started to move into the ‘delivery’ phase, however, is the high stakes power play developing between the “environmental” greens and the “political” greens.

Continue reading "Environmental Greens versus Political Greens" »

Last night at a meeting of the Marrickville Council, the council voted eight to four to not pursue its boycott of Israel.

Marrickville Council’s abortive attempt to implement the Global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (GBDS) campaign against Israel in Sydney’s Inner West should be a wake-up call. The moment to turn this objectionable campaign around should not be lost, else we will see more loopy home-grown forays into foreign policy. While this campaign may have been temporarily halted at a municipal level, it has gained considerable ground within Australia’s unions.

In moving her motion at Marrickville Council, Greens Councillor, Cathy Peters noted that the BDS campaign had the support of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, the South Coast Labour Council, and various state branches of the ASU, Teachers’ Union, LHMWU, CFMEU and MUA. In fact this is only half the list.

Continue reading "BDS BS: Labor’s infected and the Greens are gangrenous" »

Kosher pickle lovers, rest easy. Sydney’s Marrickville Council has backed down overnight from its plan to boycott all things Israeli.

This is a win both for common sense, and for anyone who enjoys the delicious, sour, garlicky, Israeli Eskal pickles pictured above, which will continue to be available for purchase on the shelves of Marrickville Woolworths, as they have been for a decade or more.

Despite butchering her run at state parliament, not to mention the credibility of both the Greens and her own council over the Israel boycott, Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne went down swinging in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, with a bizarre, longwinded justification of her council’s right, nay civic duty, to embroil itself in matters beyond garbage collection.

Continue reading "Eskalating pressure gets council out of a pickle" »

The Labor Party never stop spinning.  The Greens and the Nationals candidates stormed past Pauline Hanson on Tuesday to fill the last two seats in the NSW upper house. But Labor is now trying to take credit for stopping Pauline Hanson spreading her divisive politics for the next eight years. 

The major stars of the ‘stop Pauline Hanson show’ were the large number of Greens voters.  A record 453,125 people voted Greens in NSW on March 26.  That’s four and a half times as many people as the 98,043 who voted for Pauline Hanson.

The Greens did gain an extra 3,738 votes from Labor preferences.

Continue reading "NSW dodges a bullet thanks to the Greens" »

Yesterday, Pauline Hanson’s umpteenth attempt to climb out of the political grave ended in failure. But only just.

If NSW Labor had not extended Legislative Council preferences to the Greens Party, Hanson would be sitting on red leather for all of the next eight years, availing herself of parliamentary privilege to once again inject her poison into the Australian body politic.

The fact is, Labor preferences elected a Greens Party candidate over the top of Pauline Hanson.

Continue reading "Red, Green and Pauline: How Hanson was held back" »

I was shocked to learn this week that infighting had broken out amongst the Greens, largely because I was under the impression they were pacifists.

But yet again I was wrong. The Greens have apparently had an internal falling out over their poor showing in the NSW election result. I didn’t believe it myself until I unearthed this secret recording of the Greens’ first ever full-blown factional war….

CONVENOR: Okay, is everybody here? There are still a few empty seats.

Continue reading "Greens war not kosher, says Marrickville mayor" »

There has been much bipartisan rejoicing, about the Greens inability to win seats in their latte-belt stomping ground. The glee on the Right is understandable, but the champagne-popping among Labor supporters may prove to be shortsighted.

As is frequently observed, the ALP finds itself in the seemingly untenable position of trying to simultaneously appeal to those who — to channel the increasingly Sarah Palinesque Julia Gillard — set their alarms early and lead purposeful, dignified lives driven by love of family and nation.

And those who sleep in until 11am, fire up the breakfast bong, then amble down to a café wallpapered with Bill Henson prints of spread-eagled 13-year-olds to fill in an application for yet another round of arts funding while their same-sex partner amuses the nose-ring-sporting barista with acid-tongued denunciations of the ANZAC spirit/the music of Barnesy/hard-yakka-loving brickies and their heroic working families/baby Jesus/Don Bradman.

Continue reading "Is it time the latte-sippers left the bogans’ party?" »

The Greens are taking The Punch to the Press Council over my column of last Friday accusing them of pushing Pauline Hanson ahead of the ALP by refusing a preference swap with Labor at last weekend’s NSW election.

If the Press Council rules against us we will happily publish its ruling on the site, as we have done in the past.

Advertiser political editor Mark Kenny used the same terminology as I did on Saturday to describe the Greens’ position, but re-worded it after the party complained to avoid an ongoing stoush. I’m happy to let the stoush continue.

Continue reading "Sorry Greens, we’re not apologising." »

It’s a telling reflection on the Greens’ woeful campaign at last Saturday’s NSW election that the one politician they may have helped elect is the founder of the One Nation Party, Pauline Hanson.

The Greens were meant to cruise into office in the Lower House in New South Wales in at least two seats. Given how badly the former Labor Government had been going, and how strongly the Greens’ primary vote had been standing up in the polls, they could and should have been expected to return more than just a couple of MPs.

Instead, their campaign crashed and burned. And it did so in a way which may have caused enduring acrimony with the Labor Party. Needless to say, with federal Labor having the most precarious grasp on power courtesy of a formal coalition with the Greens, these tensions in our biggest State have the potential to strain this arrangement.

Continue reading "The Greens: when all else fails cry conspiracy" »

American satirist HL Mencken once observed that democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. Witnessing the latest efforts of the reactionary wing of Australian politics to develop a local branch office of the Tea Party, misanthropic as it may seem, one must concede perhaps Mencken had a point. 

Of course, over-the-top rallies are not strange occurrences in Australian political life. Labor has been traditionally associated with uncouth Trade Unions demos, the Greens with hippies blockading various environmental degradations, and of course conservative parties show up at various meetings of annoyed farmers and frustrated middle-class types.

Obviously politicians of all stripes try to utilise such groundswells to further their own agendas, rather than the interests of the masses they claim to represent.

Continue reading "It’s not a reactionary party without the rum" »

Back in that happy 17-day period last year when Australia was chugging along nicely without a government, we ran a piece on The Punch speculating that whichever party ended up winning the federal election would probably lose the next one.

The thinking went that the victorious party and prime minister would end up so co-opted and compromised by the various deals required to form government that they would not look like much of a government at all, with their authority diminished as they pandered to disparate MPs within their fragile alliance.

Part of the problem comes from the timidity of modern politics. The saying goes that politics was the art of the possible. These days it often looks like the art of the impossible.

Continue reading "With friends like Greens Julia needs no enemies" »

It will be one of the greatest carve-ups the country has ever seen – an election which is nothing other than a plebiscite on the uselessness of a government which even its own members find embarrassing. The polls don’t suggest NSW Labor is in trouble. They suggest NSW is in so much trouble that it might lose seats which don’t even exist yet.

The galvanising effect of this seething dislike for NSW Labor is that third parties such as the Greens will be an irrelevance in the result. There will be no hung parliament after March 26. Even if people still don’t know much about Barry O’Farrell or his policies, they will vote in their droves for the Libs. This election is purely about knocking off the ALP.

There are just two seats where the Greens are expected to trouble Labor or triumph over Labor. They’re Marrickville, held by deputy premier and health minister Carmel Tebbutt, and Balmain, held by education minister Verity Firth.

Continue reading "The weird, unscrutinised world of the NSW Greens" »

Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s carbon tax announcement represents one of the most brazen and fundamental pieces of political dishonesty in recent memory. That she chose to make the announcement surrounded by the Greens Senators and independent MPs upon whom her government depends gives us a telling insight into the factors at play.

If we look at the situation objectively there are only two possible explanations for such an announcement. The first is that Julia Gillard knowingly and deliberately told an enormous lie before the last election in a craven attempt to win over conservative voters.  The second is that Bob Brown and the Greens are in charge and the Prime Minister has been reduced to little more than the public face of a Greens Government.

Judging from their public comments over the past few days, Senator Brown and his deputy Christine Milne both clearly subscribe to the latter view:

Continue reading "PUNCH: It’s way too easy being Green" »

You are currently paying polluters to pollute – they should be paying you.

Did you know that your tax dollars are currently paying polluters to pollute?

A carbon price is part of a vitally important process of turning that around – making sure that the big polluters pay for their pollution and some of that money comes back to you to help build a cleaner, healthier, happier community. A carbon price, teamed with policies like a feed-in tariff, means we can drive investment towards the solar future while making sure that governments have the funds to help people struggling to make ends meet.

Continue reading "COUNTERPUNCH: A carbon price is the answer" »

The other night after playing cards I started thumbing absent-mindedly through the notebook we were using to keep score. It contained a combination of shorthand notes and a few fully-written words and phrases which at first blush made no sense.

“Juicy and sexy.”  “Wicked dilemma.”  “Wow of a time.” 

And: “Big swear jar (=no mandate).”  The brackets signified that the words “no mandate” were my own and not a quote. I had also scribbled the words “10 mins – Gwyneth Paltrow?” in another pair of brackets and initially could not remember why.

Continue reading "Julia and her wacky mates are failing the sunshine test" »

Antipodean Greens have established themselves as the rudest on the planet, with the New Zealanders easily winning the local derby.

Tomorrow Prime Minister Julia Gillard will address the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington in what her Kiwi counterpart, conservative John Key, had hoped would be a first.

However, NZ Greens co-leader Russel Norman and colleagues have made sure the Parliament won’t be in session when she arrives, making it just another speech and not a high-level honour.

Continue reading "Rude Greens give red light to Gillard" »

The South Australian Liberal Party today declared it ‘out lefts’ Labor on social justice issues, and will do more to shed its conservative image to “lure young voters”.

In the stampede to the political centre, parties’ traditional positions have been mashed beyond recognition.

In SA, Labor and Liberal have historically been trying to ‘out right’ each other, battling to be seen as the toughest on crime, on hoon driving, drugs and bikies.

Continue reading "It’s just a jump to the left… then a step to the right" »

As Victorians await the final counting to determine which party has won the State election, one outcome is clear. The green bubble has burst.

For the past few weeks, every prediction by the Greens - that they would claim 18 per cent of the vote, win four lower House seats and control the balance of power in Victoria - was breathlessly reported by the media.

The Greens are an anathema to Coalition supporters, who were dismayed that Adam Bandt was elected to the House of Representatives with their preferences.

Continue reading "Victorian voters burst the Greens bubble" »

The green people consulted “the science” and demanded human sacrifice to the river to make it well.

The writer of the Murray darling Commission draft report, that suddenly became a guide to the draft report (yet to be seen), declared that the legislation establishing the Commission required him to ignore the socio-economic effects of taking away irrigation entitlements and first concentrate on the wellbeing of the river – very green.

Trouble is the Water Act establishing the Commission in fact did require the Commission to consider the impact on people, communities and livelihoods. Section 3 (c) of the Water Act clearly sets out that the objectives of the Act include economic and social considerations.

Continue reading "Weird green science sells the people up the river" »

Why do the Greens hate people?

At every turn they want to reduce the quality of life for human beings or in the worst case authorise a doctor to help kill some via euthanasia.

How can any political party charged by the constitution with the responsibility of governing for the peace, order and good government of the Australian people be taken seriously when the people always come second. And be under no illusions, the Greens are part of the cobbled together Labor government.

Continue reading "A Greens dream is a nightmare for the rest of us" »

The Australian Greens want to stop all uranium exploration, close all of Australia’s existing uranium mines, oh, and while they’re at it, they’d also like a nuclear free world.

Guess what: It’s not going to happen. It’s bad policy, naive politics, and exhibits an undergraduate response to federal politics which is unbecoming in a party soon to hold the balance of power in the Senate.

Added to that, it’s a stance which assumes that the debate about the utility of nuclear power for climate change reduction is over, and that it’s been found wanting. This is far from the case.

Continue reading "Greens think locally, act stupidly on uranium" »

Here’s a simple question in a democracy – if over 80 percent of the electorate support, through a formal vote, candidates who clearly run on a specific policy, what should the new Government’s position be on that policy?

Well according to the Greens – and their cheerleaders such as Deborah Cameron on the ABC – you should first decide whether those candidates were duped by focus groups. When you decide they were – it’s fairly obvious really – you then tell the voters what they really wanted, what deep in their hearts they should believe.

Just on the primary vote, let alone the two-party preferred results, an overwhelming majority of citizens supported candidates committed to off-shore processing of asylum claims.

Continue reading "The new Green paradigm: bugger the majority" »

At the start of this year, the Greens were huddled in a little cottage in the Tasmanian wilderness, admiring some magnificent trees.

But someone spoilt the serenity and raised an uncomfortable topic for a left-wing environmental party. “What are our economic policies?”

“I hadn’t given it much thought”, Greens leader, Bob Brown said.

“But we should have economic policies. We are Australia’s third largest political party and may hold the balance of power in the Senate after the next election. We need to say something on the economy.”

“True”, said Brown, still distracted by an exquisite Gum tree out the window. “Does anyone in the room know anything about economics?”

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room.

Continue reading "Left-wing Greens grapple with economics" »

Well silly old me. There I was thinking the 2010 federal election was about economic management, border protection, broadband and leadership.

Turns out it was about light rail for north Hobart, the reintroduction of tariffs for the banana industry, an hourly limit on poker machine betting, new rules governing the length of answers during Question Time and the urgent introduction of an emissions trading scheme.

For all the talk about who has the biggest mandate, a separate and more compelling point should be made about the emergence of a raft of left-field side issues as bargaining chips in the battle to form government. And that is – none of these independents has any mandate at all to use them as conditions for supporting the major party.

Continue reading "The national policy agenda which nobody voted for" »

As the country enters yet another day of political limbo, at least one element of the recent federal election is clear: the Australian people want genuine action on climate change.

Over a week has passed since voters rejected both the major parties, creating our first hung parliament in seventy years and only the second in our history. The electorate’s disapproval of each alternative government manifested in a swell of support for the Greens and independents, who now hold the balance of power in both houses of parliament.

This unique situation seems in no small part to have arisen from Labor and the Coalition’s reluctance to offer substantive policies to mitigate global warming—the issue heralded as the greatest moral and economic challenge of our time.

Continue reading "Political limbo: hung for lack of climate vision" »

I voted for the first time this election. Willing to be a swinging voter in return for a competent government, I should have been the perfect target for a campaigning politician.

Yet the major parties do a better job at alienating youth than including us.

The incapacity to decipher anything politicians say or mean is alienating to youth who prefer a quick sound bite that is straight to the point. For voters of every age, accessing information more substantial than if the ‘real’ Julia or Tony is out today or who has better suited ears for Prime Ministership was hard this election.

After this weekend no one can doubt Australia’s frustration with such a shallow campaign.

Continue reading "Shallow campaigns have alienated young voters" »

I asked a bloke who has senior runs on the advertising board in “branding” of politicians to explain the election campaign.

He said the best analogy lies in bank ads. Writing campaigns for banks, he explained to me, is all about creating a distraction. “After financial deregulation, a gulf emerged between what retail customers wanted from banks and how bankers regarded their retail customers. The customers wanted a relationship with their bank. The bankers couldn’t care less.”

In the 90s, focus groups among average Australians who put their money with a given bank always ended in tears. “People would stand up and shout and cry. They felt incredibly let down”.

Continue reading "Brand-mad politicians acting like a pack of bankers" »

Greens leader Bob Brown has just delivered one of the sledges of the campaign during his address to the National Press Club - saying “I do have a vision for Australia and I won’t be consulting the phone book to refine it.”

That vision turned out to be a long grab-bag style list of issues Brown says the Greens will push if they get the balance of power in the Senate.

Of obtaining that balance of power he seemed very confident. Brown started his speech recounting some of the many messages of support he says he’s received, quoting people who’ve never voted Green before pledging to do so this time.

Continue reading "Bob Brown is feeling lucky" »

In an attempt to claim respectability and to convince voters that they are no longer a haven for aged hippies, eco-terrorists, pot smokers and socialists the Greens are keen to present themselves as politically mainstream and moderate.

Candidates are groomed and well dressed, Bob Brown plays the role of the elder statesman above the sordid business of doing preference deals with the ALP and politically risky polices related to gay marriage, legalising drugs and abortion on demand are downplayed in favour of saving whales, preserving old growth forests and ending junk food ads.

Continue reading "Backward and destructive, Greens policy discriminates" »

I sent a rather indignant email to Bob Brown the other day. I followed it up with an equally frustrated voicemail.

Essentially, I berated him for not being the inspirational and credible figurehead that he has been for the environmental movement for decades. I questioned his lack of visibility in an election that arguably presents one of the most monumental and significant chances the Greens have had of becoming a very powerful political force.

Senator Christine Milne’s media spokesperson Tim Hollo replied to my accusations (charitably also acknowledging that he understood my frustrations) with the simple question: “Why is the media complaining about the fluff and nonsense and policy vacuum of this election campaign, talking about the Greens having the potential to hold balance of power but completely ignoring the Greens’ policy launches?”

Continue reading "Where’s Bob Brown? He’s campaigning, just on the web" »

In less than two weeks time, while the majority of Australians flock to the polls and cast their ballots, young people across the country will sit in silence, stripped of their democratic rights by our cumbersome and anachronistic electoral system.

Last Friday, the High Court overturned the Howard government’s 2006 changes to the Electoral Act. The amendments had resulted in the electoral roll being closed a matter of hours after the writs were issued.

In an action brought by political advocacy group GetUp!, the court held these changes to be unconstitutional, thereby restoring the original seven day grace period in which individuals may place themselves on the roll.

As a consequence, an estimated 100,000 additional Australians, predominately youth, are now able to take part in this year’s election.

Continue reading "Young voters silenced as they fall through electoral cracks" »

Beware the politician who likes to claim moral superiority above other politicians.  They will likely be proven to be a hypocrite.  For today’s prize winner, meet Bob Brown.

Brown likes to pretend that his party, the Greens, represent some form of new politics.  They claim to stand on principle.  In reality, they stand for themselves.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but don’t try to con voters otherwise.

Like the Christian crusader who gets outed visiting brothels, the holier than thou political change agent who strikes the same old political deals deserves our scorn. 

Continue reading "Preference deal paints the Greens as a pack of frauds" »

Gillard’s certainly been galloping, but she’s not polling too far ahead.

The mad pre-election scramble for support has begun and the latest wild grab for ammunition has taken the form of a controversial refugee policy. Gillard played up to her rapidly forming image as one of the few straight talking, honest pollies when she said she wanted a “frank, open discussion” about Australia’s borders. She then proceeded to make decisions with insufficient Cabinet consultation, and indeed neglected to inform the Prime Minister of the country on which she planned to dump the sea-bound asylum seekers.

That, off the back of caving in to the big mining companies, confirming a belief in but lack of commitment to resolving climate change and a remarkable lack of progression when it comes to gay marriage, lead up to the election polls released today.

Continue reading "New-look Labor is a free advert for the Greens" »

It was one of the funniest exchanges on television since Homer Simpson was interviewed by Kent Brockman on Smartline about his decision to form a vigilante gang.

Simpson: “Oh, Kent, I’d be lying if I said my men weren’t committing crimes.” Brockman: “Well, touché.”

On The 7.30 Report on Tuesday night, Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown came under some fairly routine questioning from Kerry O’Brien about asylum seekers. O’Brien asked Brown whether he thought that any of the people who arrived illegally in Australia should ever be sent back to any of the countries they had fled.

Brown had a “this does not compute” moment and blanked out, and then shot back at O’Brien to ask him whether he thought that any of them should be sent back.

Continue reading "The Greens should look at replacing leader Bob Brown" »

Somewhere in a dimly lit, smoke-filled room out the back of St Andrew’s Cathedral, Anglican Bishops are holding a secret conference.  They are pouring over membership lists and crunching the numbers as they prepare to roll local P&C presidents as part of a diabolical plan to take over the world – starting with the NSW education system.

Not since Niccolò Machiavelli walked the earth has there been such a gathering of calculating and ruthless political minds.

Suddenly there is a knock at the door.  A heavy-set minder crosses the room and glares through a small peep hole before opening the door to let the newcomers in.  Through the thick haze of cigar smoke emerge representatives of the Islamic Council and the Jewish Board of Deputies.  They take their seats at the table as the unlikely cartel plans to divide the spoils of war…

Continue reading "Attacks on religion show Greens not a real alternative" »

He might have a problem with yellowcake, but with his apocalyptic oratory at the National Press Club this week, Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown showed he’s more than happy to resort to nuclear-powered fraudulence to make his case.

The Senator’s performance in the debate with Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chairman Ziggy Switkowski at the National Press Club this week was one of the more disingenuous recent contributions to Australian public life.

Since September 11 and throughout the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Senator Brown has been our very own antipodean Noam Chomsky, arguing long and loud that Australia has been suckered into a battle with an illusory enemy at the behest of Uncle Sam.

Continue reading "Why the Greens are nuclear-powered frauds" »

It should be a great time to be a Green: a first term Labor Government governing from the centre; the defining local and international issue is an environmental one; our lives are being buffeted by one extreme weather event after another.

2010 is a crunch year for the third force in Australian politics and, for many, the great hope of progressive change, with a federal election beckoning, the dream of controlling the Senate is looming large

But something is not happening for the Greens right now: despite growing disillusionment in the Labor Government, their vote is flat-lining in major polls and it is twice as ‘soft’ as the two major parties. We asked voters how strong their voting intention was, and these were the results.

Continue reading "Greens struggling to grow in heated political climate" »

Everyone must radically change the way they live - and even their culture - to save the planet, the Greens say. They want people to live in car-less “urban villages’‘, feed off community gardens and re-localise schools and hospitals.

Deputy leader of the Australian Greens Christine Milne outlined her green dream in a speech in Canberra earlier this year. “Our wealth has not brought us happiness,’’ Senator Milne told the National Press Club. “The political, social and economic makeover required is so transformative that it creates the opportunity to go greenfields.’’

Here is a preview of what this world looks like…

Continue reading "Greentopia 2050: How I became one with a lettuce" »

If Ralph Waldo Emerson was right when he said: “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” then the Australian Greens must hold the bragging rights to having the biggest brains.

For no other political Party has the ability to be so inconsistent when it comes to public policy than the Greens.

Two recent incidents, which received huge media attention, demonstrated this perfectly.

Continue reading "Making me Green in the gills" »

This first piece should inspire the question about the political basics.

What is it that differentiates the political parties? Or is philosophy now no more than a bib handed out to be worn before the political chamber game, a contrived or acquired vocal tribalism?

A tribalism based on the coincidence of the party a person joined, rather than what they believe - as what they believe has either no genuine differentiation, or does not exist.

Continue reading "The world according to Barnaby Joyce" »