Category: Adam Bandt

05 Dec

6 Comments

The Greens NSW, unions & political donations

by

With the Unions NSW-led High Court challenge to Barry O’Farrell’s donations laws awaiting a decision, a flurry of articles and commentary emerged in the press and social media recently, with several Greens activists defending the laws, and unionists, including Greens member and Fire Brigade Employees’ Union Secretary, Jim Casey, attacking them. Also coming out against […]

11 Sep

Comments Off on Caught up in Labor’s crisis: The Greens in 2013

Caught up in Labor’s crisis: The Greens in 2013

by

My post-election analysis, including the contradictions of the Greens vote, went up at the Overland website on Tuesday. Lots of good discussion and debate in the comments, also. The Greens’ entry into the alliance was made possible because it took advantage of the rejection of both major parties in 2010, but with the ALP in […]

06 Sep

Comments Off on The Left, the Greens and the crisis (from Overland)

The Left, the Greens and the crisis (from Overland)

by

My long-form essay on the trajectory of the Greens since 2010 is now up at Overland Journal‘s website, and will be in the print edition due out next week. No comments option at Overland, so feel free to comment below. The rise of the Greens represented a historic realignment of the Left of Australian politics, […]

20 Jul

29 Comments

Turning point: Asylum, Rudd’s realpolitik & the Left

by

Some moments have “turning point” written all over them. So it was when Liz and I started Left Flank three years and two weeks ago, when we highlighted a speech by Julia Gillard justifying her “lurch to the Right” on border security, and compared her language with that of John Howard — defending Hansonism — from 1996. […]

10 Jul

3 Comments

Caught flat-footed: The Greens without Gillard

by

Today at The Guardian I have a piece on the Greens’ strategic dilemmas after cosying up so close to the Gillard government. With the political class loathed by many ordinary voters, it should be no surprise the Greens have suffered politically and in the polls from their association with Gillard and the “old Labour” project […]

01 May

3 Comments

The ALP & the politics of anti-immigration (both kinds)

by

Cross-posted from Larvatus Prodeo. Thanks to Mark Bahnisch for convincing me to return to this subject. I have to confess that I couldn’t bring myself to watch Monday’s Four Corners on the scandal of Australia’s “offshore” asylum seeker processing regime. I’m on the Sydney Refugee Action Coalition email list and read horrifying stories from Manus […]