Greenwash Political Action Party and Urban Grassroots Movement for the Green Party

Friday, November 24, 2006

How Peter Garrett trashed his moral authority

This item was first publised in the crikey.com.au subscriber email

Peter Garrett was always going to find it difficult dealing with the compromises of being in the Labor Party. Well, that had been the traditional analysis of his move from environment activist to mainstream politician.

Reality has played out somewhat differently. It actually looks like Garrett is very comfortable in the grubbiest aspects of party politics. His intervention in Melbourne this week shows he can get down in the muck with the best of them.

Thousands of personal letters from Peter Garrett have been sent to inner city Melbourne residents alleging that there is "Liberal-Greens alliance" in Victoria. And this morning on Radio National he was more direct with his deceptions, claiming that the Greens were preferencing the Liberals.

The truth is that the Greens have preferenced the ALP in 60 seats in Victoria leaving it to the voters to decide in 28. In no seats were the Liberals preferenced.

In fact, in preference negotiations the ALP indicated they were satisfied with this deal. In return the ALP has given their preferences in the Upper House to the rabidly anti-choice DLP and the shooters' party (Country Alliance) before the Greens.

We will not know the electoral impact of Garrett's work until Saturday night but already we know what it has done to Garrett's reputation amongst the true environmental believers.
Inner city Melbourne is a political savvy electorate, filled with environment movement leaders and opinion makers. And word of Garrett's intervention and how he is being used has spread quickly through national environment and activist circles.

People are dismayed, not just that he would allow himself to be used to peddle distortions but that he would want himself known as someone who stopped the Greens gaining balance of power in the Upper House. The result being that either the Nationals or Labor would be in control – not a good result for the environment under anyone's analysis.

Peter Garrett could have gone out campaigning in the outer suburban Melbourne marginals where his "bogan appeal" could have helped defeat anti-environment Liberals. Instead he chose to try and deliberately mislead voters about the preference arrangements of a pro-environment party looking to gain a toehold in the Victorian parliament.

Watch now for Garrett to be rolled out in the NSW election to help the Labor party try to win the seat of Balmain which the Greens councillor Rochelle Porteous has a good chance of winning.
Whatever happens on Saturday Peter Garrett will have lost. If his impact fails to stop the Greens winning seats he will be seen as a flop by his new ALP colleagues.

But even if his grubby entry into the Victorian election succeeds electorally for the ALP he will have trashed something far more important – his reputation as a moral voice in Australian politics.

posted by Ben Oquist # 2:38 PM 1 comments

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The cleanest and greenest of them all

John Howard is starting to sound very shrill with his silly chant that nuclear is the 'cleanest and greenest of them all'. It just sounds dumb which of course it is. Regardless, he and Ziggy Switkowski refuse to talk about the real elephant in the room - energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency is the immediate answer to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is the 'cleanest and greenest' of all.

According to a Greenpeace report, Australia consumes about twice the European average consumption per capita. If Australian citizens consumed the same amount of electricity as the Europeans, we would save half of all the current installed generation capacity - the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactors.

Mandatory building standards, energy efficient fridges, better light bulbs, insulation for all houses. All these things add up and are much cheaper, cleaner and more environmentally friendly than any other option.

The Ziggy report admits that Nuclear power will not save one tonne of CO2 until after 2030 and then only cut emissions by 8-18% by 2050. That's pathetic. By then it will be too late. We need action now or dangerous climate change will wreck lives, economies, societies, reefs, forests and wildlife across the plant. By 2050 renewables technology will be even better than today with hot rocks, solar thermal, wind and solar panels powering all our energy needs.

The main thing is to start getting ourselves off coal now and not wait for some mythical clean coal technology or the expensive and dangerous option of nuclear power half a century away

posted by Ben Oquist # 4:44 PM 0 comments

Friday, November 17, 2006

Laugh or Cry on Kyoto

With all the misinformation being spread about Kyoto, new Kyoto and the Australian Government's desperate attempts to look like it is doing something, it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry. So, for the moment, have a laugh with the new Nicholson animation cartoon.

View it here - "Science Rules"..

posted by Ben Oquist # 3:41 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Greenhouse triple speak

Even though we seem to be living in an era of breathtaking double speak on matters relating to climate change, surely John Howard's declarations this morning must take the cake.

The front page of the Daily Telegraph today screamed "I'LL LEAD ON GREENHOUSE" with an interview with the Prime Minister. Turns out that the John Howard's idea of 'leading' is a meeting with Australia's biggest coal exporters.

"Tomorrow he will chair a gathering of chief executives of companies driving Australia's $25 billion-a-year coal export industry. He hopes to form a "partnership" on a "strategy to best promote this country's interests" in the international greenhouse debate." - Daily Telegraph 14/11/06

So there you have it. The Prime minister's idea of leading on climate change is helping those who cause climate change to continue to make massive profits out of their $25 billion a year environmentally destructive industry.

posted by Ben Oquist # 2:22 PM 3 comments