Greens gear up for Fed Election
- Author:
- Fabian Di Lizia
- Posted:
- Thursday, 3 January 2013
Ahead of this year’s Federal election, the Greens have preselected Hall Greenland and Dianne Hiles for the seats of Grayndler and Sydney respectively.
The members were elected in rank-and-file ballots. Mr Greenland faces a difficult task in Grayndler against current Labor Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Anthony Albanese. Mr Albanese has been the incumbent since 1996 and won almost double the Greens’ primary vote at the 2010 election.
Mr Greenland, who describes himself as an “urban environmentalist”, was the first editor for City Hub and won a Walkley Award. Locally, he is campaigning to stop the O’Farrell Government’s $13 billion Westconnex Motorway plan. He also pledges to ensure action on climate change and improve government spending on education, mental health and social welfare.
In spite of the difficulties in winning an inner city Labor stronghold like Grayndler, Mr Greenland is optimistic.
“Adam Bandt, the Federal Greens MP for Melbourne, has certainly shown the remarkable things one Greens MP can achieve … Greens members and supporters are inspired to work hard as they know what could be achieved with even more Greens MPs,” he says.
But Mr Albanese says he is aware of the concerns of the large number of local progressive voters.
“I expect the Greens party will poll strongly again. However, I feel the Gillard Labor Government has delivered a lot of important progressive reforms,” he says.
Mr Albanese says he will campaign strongly for a fairer funding model for schools, action on climate change and disability sector reform. Locally, Mr Albanese confirms he is partaking in a detailed analysis of a second Sydney airport site at Wilton.
The Liberal Party office did not return calls regarding a candidate for Grayndler and at this stage may not have a candidate in the offing.
As City Hub revealed in 2012, the Liberals will field Sean O’Connor for the seat of Sydney, who will face Labor Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek and Ms Hiles from the Greens. Mr O’Connor was contacted for comment but did not return calls.
Ms Hiles is a chartered management accountant and IT project manager. Ms Hiles describes herself as a refugee advocate and said Labor is failing to address inequities in Sydney. Ms Hiles is concerned Labor has shirked human rights responsibilities in government.
“I feel really passionate that Labor locks up [refugee] children and the Coalition does not care. I believe all children should be able to achieve their full potential,” she says.
Nonetheless, Ms Plibersek says Labor is working hard to address local inequities, as evidenced by their policy record.
“Federally, Labor has already delivered historic increases to the pension and student income support, introduced paid parental leave and put a price on carbon pollution for future generations. Next Labor will fund the Gonski education reforms [and] build a National Disability Insurance Scheme,” she says.
In light of Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s agreement with independent crossbenchers to form government, a Federal election must be held prior to November 30, 2013.
Hall Greenland
Like this article? Register as a subscriber here. It's free! We'll keep you up to date with new stories on the site.
January 4th, 2013 @ 12:46 pm
Six month ago, Hall Greenland wrote “…the federal Greens leadership, not to mention the Greens membership as a whole, are veering to the right, driven by electoralism and an attachment to neoliberalism. They are, to coin a phrase, “neoliberals on bikes”.
Nice turn of phrase, and one which the preselected Greensparty candidate may now regret. The quote comes from a blog site, aptly named “Watermelon” and run by one of Mr Greenland’s old comrades from the 70s left, Tony Harris. Its main function is to continually blast the Greens for being traitors to the revolution – the one that was supposed to have occurred in the 70s, but didn’t.
http://watermelontharris.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/greens-and-their-better-selves.html
Anyone interested in inner city politics would also be well advised to read Mr Harris’s exhaustive (and exhausting) book, still available in Leichhardt Library. Unintentionally hilarious, Basket Weavers and True Believers comprehensively outlines Hall Greenland’s (and the author’s and others) role in the self-immolation of the left in the inner west in the 70s and 80s.
More than 40 years on the local Greensparty have chosen to return to those days of gloriously pure failure. They have chosen as a candidate a now elderly 60s-style counter-culture revolutionary and Labor Party wrecker (expelled in 1984), who has stood for many different parties and causes and has about as much chance of winning Grayndler as his old school Pabloist mentors of the 50s and 60s. Yes, they are all dead too.
A sobering assessment of Greenland’s style comes from a former Mayor of Marrickville, Barry Cotter (quoted by Harris) when Greenland was still in the ALP: “… no one could work with him. I think there were 158 resolutions that we discussed at caucus and he opposed 158 of them. It was impossible to work with such a person!” (p120)
But Albo at least will be well pleased with the local Greensparty branch’s foolish choice. At least it proves they are not “driven by electoralism”.
The Red Brigade (Annandale Branch)
January 4th, 2013 @ 3:00 pm
Calling Grayndler a “Labor stronghold” is incorrect. Less than 50% of primary vote goes to Labor here, and the ALP only “won” in 2010 because the non-Labor vote splits between the Libs and the Greens. This is a similar situation to Adam Bandt’s Melbourne, and the demography is similar too: rapidly gentrifying, wealthy and well-educated. ie. the exact opposite of “Labor heartland”
Adam Bandt won in Melbourne because the Liberals directed their preferences to him. Put that another way: They WANTED him to win. The Greens in Grayndler were able to ask for a recount (on 24.9% of the primary) on the same basis. If the Liberals preference the non-Labor parties again in 2013, and they almost certainly will just to “get” Albanese, the Greens can win Grayndler.
But will they pick up this one with an ageing Trot with a very dubious and well-documented past as a candidate? One thing for sure, Hall Greenland is a very odd choice for the Greens.
Grayndler is a winnable seat for the Greens. Or rather, it was.
January 6th, 2013 @ 12:57 pm
Urban environmentalist huh? The Greens councillors amd Mayors of Leichhardt and Marrickville Councils were responsible for despoiling Pioneer Park and Enmore Park with large “community” facilities placed inappropriately in them. This means that Pioneer Park now has a large playground placed so close to the Rotunda that it is useless for public performances – such as our annual Poetry Picnic.
We moved our annual Poetry Picnic from Enmore Park after 1992 when Council constructed a new large playground in the middle of it. More recently the Greens run Council greatly expanded Enmore Pool in Enmore Park – further alienating more precious heritage public parkland. They never consulted with community group park users like us – just as Liberals or Labor never do. So how are Greens any better than the big old Parties on local environment?
January 7th, 2013 @ 10:47 am
My comment about local Council Greens helping to despoil heritage inner Sydney parks with recreational facilities, mentions the Poetry Picnic. Readers can find more information on that at unemployedembassy.magix.net in the Embio Fest section.
January 8th, 2013 @ 10:38 am
The NSW Greens, and particularly the ones in Marrickville and Balmain, really do seem locked into the 70s past. Voters do want change and reform, but in selecting a candidate so identifified with the past ultra-leftism and failures of Leichhardt Council, they have done local voters a considerable diservice. Perhaps progressives like myself can hope for the Democrats to rise again, or maybe a true independent. But I, like many others with long memories, wont be voting for Hall Greenland.
January 10th, 2013 @ 3:12 am
Under Christine Milne, Greens are attempting to be more ‘respectable’ ie not so radicool,but they remain committed to an ecologically sustainable future, no fracking,human rights for all people, equal marriage and to peace.
January 11th, 2013 @ 12:36 pm
Marrickville Greens will never recover from the boycotts, sanctions and divestment debacle, which woke up the local community to some of the party’s weirder policies. Albo and Carmel Tebbutt look the lesser of two evils compared to irrelvant stuff like that.
I’m not sure about Richard Coady’s point on Enmore Park, though. There was n extensive consultation process for that and the Greens re-worked at least one pool design to lessen impact, increasing expense and construction time. And consultation is a two-way street – one CAN reach out to council with an opinion. Marrickville is pretty good that way.
January 11th, 2013 @ 12:53 pm
Richard, you do realise that the footprint of the new pool area is smaller than the pool area it replaced? The replacement of the old dilapidated pool has also been a popular local development. Curious that on the one hand Lab/Lib politicians slam Greens as being anti-development, then cry foul when they support highly successful public space developments.
January 25th, 2013 @ 10:38 pm
I supported Hall when he was the FIRST candidate for a Green party in the 1987 election. I voted Green for 20 years after that. But never again. They lost me when they tried to bring down the Labor government (and help elect Abbott) just to show how “powerful” they were. I guess they only looked good when they had no real power. So now I’ve returned “home” to Labor. The joke (?) is that Hall always supported the “broad church” of Labor against the crazies of the irrelevant left, until he was kicked out of the ALP for supporting local Labor against Sussex Street. For the full story see the brilliant film “Rats In The Ranks” (although it focusses on the other person kicked out, Larry Hand).
February 19th, 2013 @ 11:26 pm
I can’t understand why they chose Hall Greenland as Greens candidate for Grayndler. He seems to have a very out-dated 1970′s view of politics complete with class warfare etc etc. Australian Greens seem to be doing a good job trying to modernise the party and bring the policies into line with the core principles of non-violence, social justice etc. Some of the older NSW Greens seem determined to cling to the dim distant past… these guys will destroy the party. Shame.