The Greens

As an increasing number of voters become disillusioned with the major parties (particularly as they seem to be meeting in the middle), the Greens in Australia are attracting more and more of the Primary vote. This was made clear in the recent Federal Election; a 4% swing in both the lower and upper houses, which culminated to a total of 13% of the vote in the Senate. These are extraordinary numbers for a minor political party, however the news gets better if you’re a Greens fan as they are tipped to achieve in greater numbers in the upcoming Victorian State Election.

The word is that we could have a hung parliament, with the Greens holding the balance of power. I quite like the Greens as a minor party. I agree with the ideology of a lot of their policies. However these are very broad policies (at both a federal and state level). Policies that don’t go into much detail but demand radical change / action. Policies that disregard, or just simply don’t even consider, ramifications to the broader community. Both of which, I believe, is not something you want from a major party.

Let’s take a look at some of their policies:

1. Climate and Energy.

· “We’ll be making rapid emissions reductions and supporting workers in carbon intensive industries like Hazelwood power station to re-skill and adjust to low-carbon jobs.” There is only one way to make rapid emissions reductions and that is to shut down Victoria’s coal-fired power generators. What will we then do with no electricity? It will take years and billions of dollars to replace and compensate current energy generators and it is simply not feasible. Where are these low-carbon jobs? What industries are they in? It seems to me the only way that all this can become possible is by building Nuclear Power Stations. But the Greens would never allow that to happen now would they?

· “A smart grid would place energy generation and consumption side by side, with each house and business supplying power for each other.” Where is this ‘smart grid?’ How long will it take to build? At what cost?

2. Animals

· “We will end duck shooting, puppy factories and jumps racing.” What the Greens haven’t mentioned on their website is that they want to ban all shooting and gun ownership. They also want to ban recreational fishing. The greens also mention on their website that they want “the most humane and effective means available to be used in the control of introduced and pest species,” which I am pretty sure is with guns, rather than introducing a virus or other methods. I’m actually quite passionate that something urgent, and drastic needs to be done about swelling rabbit, fox, camel and cane toad numbers in Australia. These introduced species are wreaking havoc on farming and native flora and fauna throughout the country and less of them would massively increase efficiency in both farming practices and native species growth. Something akin to the great buffalo round-up from the Northern Territory is required, and was even suggest by Kevin Rudd in regards to camels, but he was labelled a murderer. Duck shooting is tightly controlled by the DSE. Each year different quotas are introduced depending on the numbers of duck populations. There has been an increase in the duck population in recent years, even though bag limits have increased. As for jumps racing; personally i enjoy it and even though the risk of serious injury to the horse is slightly greater than normal racing, I don’t see how you can classify them differently. Equestrian Eventing should be in that category too, have you even seen cross-country?

3. Economics

· “Long term government borrowing is the preferred mechanism for funding long term infrastructure investments.” Government borrowing is the one thing that is not acceptable right now. Heavy borrowing has landed Greece in hot water and is about to make Ireland insolvent.

· “The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is unfair, regressive and places an unfair burden on individuals and small business.” I strongly disagree. I believe the GST simplified taxation and greatly reduced tax minimisation attempts by companies and individuals. It is an efficient and fair system, maximising tax revenue with less effort.

· “International institutions such as the World trade Organisation (WTO) the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank must assist countries to achieve their democratically determined priorities within ecological constraints.” Why? Australia has recently enjoyed, and will soon again, very strong budget revenues. Why would we need funding from WTO, IMF or World Bank? Why can’t we just do it ourselves? Oh, that’s right. We have to borrow heavily over the long term to invest.

· The Greens will raise “the company tax rate to 33% and broaden the company tax base by reducing tax concessions.” Good luck dealing with business lobby groups on that.

· They will “reduce Australia’s foreign debt and foreign ownership through use of trade, financial and regulatory measures to ensure more productive use of foreign capital and strengthening of Australian manufacturing, recognising the need to support economies in developing countries.” But how? There is no detail.

· They will “implement a gradual and long term shift in the tax system from work based taxes to taxes on natural resources and pollution including... other ecological taxes and charges at a level sufficient enough that their prices reflect the full environmental cost of their production, use or disposal.” Again, the detail is deplorable, however moving the tax system from work based taxes to natural resource based taxed is deplorable. Natural resources are a finite quantity. They will run out. When they do the Australian economy and workforce will evolve and transform into other sectors. There will always be work, but there will not always be resources. Also, a tax on resources contradicts the Greens policies on Indigenous Australians, as Indigenous Australians, effectively, own the resources that are in Australia. Taxing them is not an option as they are not the government’s to tax.

The Greens do address (address in a very casual sense, like most policies, they mention it as a general statement with no substance nor execution strategy) some interesting things that other parties seem to be very good at ignoring. Issues like mental health and same sex marriage. Their general approach to humanism is quite good. However, like all their other policies, they are not costed, they have no detailed plan for implementation and they don’t seem to have any idea how to pay for it (partly because they don’t know how much it will cost).

If the Greens want to become the third major Party that they think they will be (categorising the Liberals and Nationals as one party), then they need to grow up and start acting like one. They can’t continue to make brash, general statements that you would only expect to hear from someone wearing a beret or someone who doesn’t really know much about politics.

I don’t mind if people vote for the Greens; but I do mind if they vote for them ‘just cause’ or they don’t fully understand what the Greens will do if they hold the balance of power. If you want to vote Greens, you need to understand what they will do to this state (and country) if given the opportunity.

On a side note, if the Greens do get 20% of the vote, that means that one in five Victorians voted for them, nowhere near a majority, but they would effectively hold the balance of power in government. I believe this is a major flaw in our parliamentary system as we would be left with representatives that have the support of 1 in 5 Victorians having a much greater say in government policies than their vote count should suggest. Meaning that policies that the majority of citizens don’t agree with or don’t support would be getting pushed to the forefront of government agenda. Which is flat-out unfair.