Australia's Greens

With the exciting news out of Australia, you would think the Australian Green Party would be taken seriously.  Amazingly, CBC's The National with Peter Mansbridge, reported that Julia Gillard had cobbled together a government thanks to Independents.  No mention of the Greens at all.  On the 6 pm CBC Radio news, the story was accurate and mentioned the key role played by Greens.   Four hours later, CBC had lost the Greens.

Meanwhile, the National Post ran a rant from Kelly McParland attacking the Greens  -- in Australia and here:

"According to The Guardian, another British paper (British papers are always more entertaining than others, because they make stuff up) “a surge in popularity has given the environmental movement an unprecedented parliamentary presence in Australia this year, prompting suggestions that electorates are punishing mainstream parties for failing to act decisively on climate change.”

Oh for pity sake. One seat is a “surge in popularity” amounting to “an unprecedented parliamentary presence”? Who writes this stuff, Elizabeth May? You can imagine how excited Ms. May must be. Because, you know .. what if the same thing happened in Canada? What if Harper and Ignatieff were deadlocked in seats, Ms. May managed to actually get herself elected, the Bloc and NDP took a pass and Elizabeth May held the balance of power?

I know what would happen. There’d be another election in about eight minutes, because that’s how long it would take for a general consensus to form that no one really wants the Greens running the country. Not in general, and certainly not on the basis of one seat."

I thought you might enjoy my response, which The National Post also ran online:

Australia’s Green Surge

While Kelly McParland is contemptuous of the influence wielded by the Green Party in Australia  --  “Oh for pity sake. One seat is a ‘surge in popularity’ amounting to ‘an unprecedented parliamentary presence’ ?” -- his rant lacked context and denies impressive electoral gains for Australian Greens.

The reality is that this is the second election in Australia where the climate crisis played a key role.  It was Kevin Rudd’s promise to ratify Kyoto and dump former Prime Minister John Howard’s Bush-like stance on climate that won him the election back in 2007.  Had he delivered on climate promises he might be Prime Minister still.  The rejection of his carbon pricing scheme in the Australian Senate was a key factor in Labour Party losing confidence in him as leader.  The internal power struggle saw Labour Caucus and Cabinet member Julia Gillard replace him as Prime Minister.   Within weeks, she took the country back to the polls.  She dramatically misread the mood of the Australian citizenry.  Her campaign platform left out any significant commitment to address the climate crisis. And she paid for it.

The Labour vote dropped dramatically.  With preferential voting in the lower house, Greens carried 11.75% of the first preference vote, while the once majority Labour Party had 37.98%.  The 2007 election had seen Green Party support at about 7%, roughly the same as in Canada’s 2008 election. The recent election saw Green support increase by roughly 50%.

True, Greens won only one seat in the lower house, with Adam Bandt taking a Melbourne riding that had been Labour for 100 years.  But the Greens were very competitive in the Senate where popular leader Bob Brown has held his seat since 1996.  Senator Brown is the dean of the Australian Parliament as its longest serving leader.  He has a sharp mind, a quick wit and is respected for his principled stands on a wide range of issues.   The Australian Senate is elected under proportional representation and this election saw the Green caucus jump from five to nine Senators.  In the Senate, the Greens hold the balance of power.  In the lower House, Adam Bandt’s strong commitment to work with Labour rather than the Liberal/National coalition was a key factor in the negotiations that have led to a coalition among the few Independents, the Greens and Labour.

Kelly McParland suggests any government including Greens would last “eight minutes.”  Such assertions are blissfully fact-free. Green Members of Parliament have served in many coalitions that have governed successfully, including in Sweden, Ireland (currently), Latvia, Finland, France, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Belgium and most famously in Germany.  The German Green-Social Democrat Coalition governed for something longer than eight minutes.  In fact for seven years, 1998-2005, the German Greens served in government, implementing the renewable energy strategy, which has created over 300,000 new jobs in Germany, as well as legislation requiring full life cycle accountability for all consumer products, dramatically reducing solid waste and promoting reduced toxic chemicals in products.  

Yes, it’s true.  Canadian Greens look forward to the day when we will have seats in the House of Commons.  With nearly one million Green votes in the last election, compared to the Bloc’s 1.3 million votes, it seems undemocratic that the Bloc should have 49 seats while Greens have none.  Nevertheless, we are not driven by a thirst for power.  Over the years, other political parties have offered me much easier ways to obtain power. As young Belgian Green MP, Kristoff Calvo, recently told our convention in Toronto, “We Greens are interested in the power of the idea, not the idea of power.
 
The power lies in ideas whose time has come.  It is time to replace the hyper-partisanship of the House of Commons with a more respectful politic. It is time to stop the relentless non-stop electioneering that defines Canada’s current political culture and to return to civility and cooperation.  Canadians are losing faith in the old line parties.  Like Australia’s Greens, we recognize that in ignoring the climate crisis, we are losing economic opportunities as well as hastening the onslaught of severe climate disasters.  As in the recent elections in the United Kingdom, where the Green Party leader won their first seat (despite the first past the post electoral system), and in Australia, support for the Green Party is growing across Canada as well.  

Meanwhile, I have sent my congratulations to my friend Bob Brown.  Watching Australian politics, I have a sense we will continue to watch his star rise.