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 […]
19 Nov
The Australian Greens are deeply worried about the civilian death toll in Israel and Palestine, and urge both sides of the conflict to put down their weapons and respect a ceasefire. “The human suffering is too great and the continued recourse to violence has done nothing for peace,” Australian Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said. […]
10 Feb
Comments Off on Is this what democracy looks like? The NSW Greens & the campaign against the BDS
The latest issue of The Monthly and my response in The Drum on Monday (here, reposted at Left Flank here) have stirred public interest in the sharpened political debates about the future of the Greens. On Thursday, The Australian ran a curiously subdued feature on the party by Christian Kerr that also pulled a lengthy quote the Drum essay. One area that deserves more […]
06 Feb
Comments Off on The Greens at the crossroads: ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ matter more than you’d think
‘Factional rifts, personal animosities and turf wars’ My latest article on ABC’s The Drum, looking at the politics and ideology behind the growing tensions in the Australian Greens, and why these debates matter. In the last decade there has been a dramatic reconfiguration on the Left of Australian politics. The ALP’s support has dropped to […]
15 Sep
Comments Off on Australia’s ‘Left’ in government. Part 2: Greens trapped in a prison of their own making
Since when did building a climate movement mean cheerleading neoliberal government policies? In the last post I argued that the deep crisis of the Gillard government is also a crisis of the Greens and the Left more generally. By effectively entering a “Left” government the Greens have replicated the disastrous strategy of Italy’s main party of the […]
04 Mar
Comments Off on Drugs! Drugs! Drugs!
As the state election skulks closer, it seems clear the NSW Greens will not be actively campaigning on their Drugs and Harm Minimisation policy in the community or the media. Their silence makes obvious that they have determined to stay mum on the question, despite the policy being one democratically endorsed by the membership after […]
28 Aug
Lest people thought that the pre-election red-baiting of the Greens would stop now that the party’s vote had risen to 11.5 percent and they had gained four new Senators as well as a lower house MP, it has not taken long for a new round of attacks to start. While the media have joined the […]
14 Aug
Comments Off on Worse than the cure? The hollowness of Australia’s preventative health agenda
For too long the system has focused on treating people after they become unwell, and this has resulted in vast social and economic costs associated with chronic disease. —Commonwealth Government response to the Report of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, May 2010 “Prevention” has become the health reform buzzword du jour, accepted at all points […]
08 Aug
I wonder how you see the Greens party. I mean is it an ecological party or is it maybe Australia’s only left wing party? —Laurie Oakes to Bob Brown, 11 July 2010 The persistence of polling showing the Greens at 11-13 percent has meant that for the first time in a federal election the party […]
29 Jul
Comments Off on Red baiting back in fashion
The NSW Senate race has produced a sideline of media commentary attacking Lee Rhiannon, the lead Greens candidate and until recently a NSW Upper House MP. Most of it has been along the lines of the socialist menace lurking beneath the apparently acceptable green exterior of the party.
05 Dec
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