Mood:
lyricalTopic: aust govt
We posted this on our private Facebook page, which deserves some wider distribution:
#1
It seems to me [Christine Milne] is far more mainstream than Bob in relation to her biography sent out on the Greens email list. Just saying. Also it is jarring to read Cheryl Kernot comment in the press today. Can't see CM getting into bed literally with the bastards. Talk about HUGE error of judgement by Kernot, given she was supposed to be making independent critique on same lover (Gareth Evans). I mean, talk about no credibility. One well remembers the Stott euphemistically referring to the news of Kernot's defection to the ALP as "very interesting" with quite a deal of acid in her tone, presumably sourced to the inside knowledge of the affair, that the Australian public were not deemed important enough to be informed of until Laurie Oakes broke the unofficial embargo of the insiders. Absolutely hopeless self awareness of concepts of duty and independence from Kernot.
#2
Some more distilled thinking on the transition - errors in big media coverage -
First BB as admirable and indeed lovable as he is, is not really historically "the father" of the environment movement. Arguably that might go to say Miles Dunphy and some degree son Milo Dunphy (?) back to the bushwalking days of the depression and cheap rail links to the Blue Mtns. Noting BB lived in Dundas as a young medical student not far from me here in Eastwood.
Second - As great as the Franklin River issue and victory was - my vote for Hawke as an 18 year old was because of the Franklin issue while a student at ANU law school - more arrests and protest numbers occurred in the late 80ies and 90ies in the South East Forests of NSW. Thus SE Forests were arguably the biggest green issue of our time politically (?).
Thirdly - the malicious wedging pursued by the anti greens in the validly described hate press is flawed in relation to NSW Greens regardless of genuine tensions or debate. Note
(i) green in Green history of SE Forests which drew me to join and be jointly a first Green Party local councillor in NSW in 1995-1999 at Waverley (which was Rhiannon's home branch by the way, though I lapsed from 2000).
(ii) the wedgers always ignore Lee was effectively brought in by Geof Ash her boyfriend, who is fairly described as the founder and architect of the NSW Greens (I shared a group house in 1992 at Bondi - Geof worked delivering organic vegetables, was famoulsy a refugee from the ALP Left of the 80ies).
(iii) I suspect Lee's ambition as I understand has always been to achieve what her mother failed to do - be elected to the Senate. That is, arguably she has achieved her life goal, which was not it appears to annexe The Greens to the CPA (or renamed variant).
(iv) Regarding BDS - it's a bit trite and naive for those who do not live in the core centres of Jewish diaspora and who are not well informed on a very real streak of ultra right fascism in the Israeli Right - here and there - to seek a quiet life with the powerful Jewish lobby. People of good will MUST address the exemplar of Yigal Amir as Jewish assassin of Israel's PM, given Amir's crime has significant support amongt the diaspora then and now. Think about that in a nuclear armed world power of gifted people. Truly only love will overcome the racism against Jewish folks but that's no recommendation for willful blindness about terra nullius policies on the West Bank and Gaza.
#3
...... the denial of the role of sick capitalism in GFC mark I, and expected mark II, by such as The Australian rherorticians owned by ...... Rupert Murdoch. Inconveniently for them the rusted on socialists like Lee Rhiannon have quite a deal more credibility in their life long contempt for capitalism. Although I don't personally feel that contempt or ideological hatred, I believe an honest appraisal of the GFC and those who warned constantly of the sickness within capitalism (see for instance doco The Corporation, or Smartest Guys in the Room re Enron collapse) should be given due credit and acknowledgment. It's easy in Australia which dodged the recession to ignore that some estimate the cost of the GFC was comparable to the sum of the cost of the Great Depression, WW2, Vietnam War and The Space Race. That's a very very very big price paid and why the valid aspects of socialism and central regulatory government should be honestly appraised. Not for ideological reasons - practical ones.
#4
Also a personal note. Milo Dunphy was a mentor of mine 1993-96. Probably a bigger influence than BB here in NSW. I understand Milo ran as a candidate in Tasmania during the Lake Pedder campaign for something called the United Tasmania Group (?) - Indeed I note this quote: "1972 United Tasmania Group (UTG) set up with Bob Brown and Milo Dunphy as co-directors, largely to campaign against damming of Lake Pedder. Regarded as the world’s first “green” political party." at http://www.ecodirectory.com.au/index.php/green-history
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We note this blast from the past too, involving hand delivery of 4,000 by the author to the Bondi Basin residences prior to the Waverley Council election in September 1999, that we would like to think resulted in 3 new Greens being elected to that council. Though the authorisation is in editor's name it was in fact co-written with Geoff Ash in the printing shop of Colin Chartlon at Waterloo, Sydney.
