September 2006 - Young Green

Young Green

E-mail Subscription

Receive an e-mail notification of new posts on this site:

Vimu Subscription

Young Green - September 2006

An Inconvenient Truth

September 29th 2006 08:25

This week I saw Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth and can I say WOW! I didn't think that I really had to watch this film, I thought it would be preaching to the choir but I'm glad I saw it. I didn't learn anything really new but just the inspiration of being told, "Yes, most intelligent people agree with you and you're going the right way to do something about it!"

You also realise how immediate this problem is. We are feeling the effects now and if we continue to take no action, things will get worse in the next TEN TO TWENTY YEARS, that's right, it's not something our kids will worry about, it's something we will have to deal with!

It is also interesting to note that this week John Howard announced a department headed by Malcolm Turnbull focusing on Australia's urgent water problems. The ridiculous thing is that John Howard continues to maintain that global warming is a myth and has claimed An Inconvenient Truth is inaccurate. So how do you fight a drought being caused by... CLIMATE CHANGE without addressing climate change? You throw lots of money and Malcolm Turnbull at it and hope it goes away...

Howard was quoted in the media this week as saying that water is the most pressing political issue at the moment, and yet he refuses to look at its cause. It would be ridiculously funny if, whilst Howard keeps his blindfold on, farmers weren't suffering and billions of tax payers dollars weren't being wasted.

This comes back to my bemusement as to why the Greens never do well in rural areas. I mean the issues which are hurting our rural population: drought, fire, unemployment, lack of infrastructure make up a huge ammount of Greens policy. Meanwhile the Nationals continue to get votes and do nothing. I know we're seen as the tree-huggers chaining ourselves to bulldozers or the beret-wearing beatniks quoting poetry in street cafes but honestly guys, isn't it time you got over it and work with us to fix your problems? The other parties sure haven't worked, maybe it's worth taking a risk while you still have sheep and crops standing...

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Comments (1)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Labor and IR

September 25th 2006 14:08

Here is a piece I wrote in June about the National Day of Action against Howard's IR Laws on June 28th, 2006.

Had a fantastic day today. I went into the city early and helped out sticking triangles to bits of bamboo and was then given instructions to head down to Bourke St Mall since I'm tall and we needed tall people to hold up triangles. Meanwhile fellow Young Green and candidate for Kew, Emma, was sent up to Spring St to walk down Bourke St with the group coming from Parliament House (there were four different groups converging on Bourke St Mall, from Parliament, Trades Hall, Fed Square and Spencer Street - I'm sorry Southern Cross Station) she tried to get in front of the group but was muscled out by the Labor people.

I got between the truck that had the speeches and the truck that had the media with the Latrobe Greens. Unfortunately that meant we were stuck amongst a group of Socialists. I thought this was a bad thing but I had forgotten that the socialists are great at getting on camera... We also had fun with them singing chants and us challenging them to come up with a chant to different tunes. Then we had the obligatory speeches from Steve Bracks (Victoria's premier) and Kim Beasley (useless Leader of Opposition) saying how good Labor is and how it was noticable that no other parties were there (yeah, that's because you wouldn't let us have a speaker...). My favourite bit though was when they started talking about the Eureka Stockade and how it was all about workers rights and I said loudly "Actually, they just wanted an excuse to beat up the Chinese..." and everyone cacked themselves. It's true though! Not a bad effort getting socialists to laugh, they're generally such a miserable bunch.

At the end of the Rally the Channel Nine cameraman came down to us and screamed at us because we'd had Green triangles in every one of his shots. (woohoo!). I watched Channel 9, SBS and ABC news and it looks fantastic too! The best bits though were both Bracks and Beasley talking with their faces half covered by a Greens triangle in the foreground.

Also, a guy from a new Channel 31 show called Plug In asked Emma to do an interview which was pretty cool. And we talked to them for a while about politics. Plug In is going to be a new show on Channel 31that promotes marginal political groups and ideas, so they've got our number if they ever need more Young Greens. It was awesome though.

And we pissed off Channel Nine... there's my day right there!

***

So, why am I writing about this? Well, a little bird has told me that Labor have decided to move the next IR Rally from 15th November, ten days before the State Election, to December, after it. Apparently they are concerned that they may lose votes to The Greens.

I mention this because it proves what sort of a difference we can all make. Basically six 19-23 year olds getting between TV cameras and Bracks have caused the ALP heirachy to freak out.

It also proves that Labor view The Greens as a serious political opponent, as do the Nationals who, as previously mentioned have been quite happy to accept the help of the Exclusive Brethren. I would assume Liberals would be the same, although when Emma and I met Andrew MacIntosh, the current member for Kew he didn't seem too concerned about us, he even gave us some tips about campaigning... wonder how he'll feel November 26th...

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Exclusive Brethren

September 19th 2006 01:47

The Exclusive Brethren is a radical religious sect that is perhaps the greatest threat to democracy in a long time.

The Brethren have run several campaigns to support conservative political parties both in Australia and New Zealand. In New Zealand last year they ran a $500,000 campaign against NZ PM Helen Clark and The Greens, severely hurting both parties' votes. Earlier this year the Brethren also ran a strong campaign against the Greens in Tasmania. The campaign was devastating with the Greens expecting to gain 6-8 seats, they were lucky to retain the four they already had (and in the face of it we were proud of managing that against the Brethren's onslaught).

Now National Leader Peter Ryan has confirmed with The Age (Sept 19, 2006) that he has met with the Brethren to discuss the Victorian election. The Brethren are violently opposed to a woman's right to choose to have an abortion and are also against gay rights, but I think we can be proud of the fact that the Brethren have had to look to the National Party to find a party that shares their views.

The Brethren strongly supported John Howard in the 2004 election but they have reportedly been concerned with Ted Baillieu's left-of-centre policies. Both the Libs and Labor have introduced several "Green" policies in the fear that support for the Greens could hurt them in the November election.

The presence in the election of the Brethren has not been unexpected by The Greens. We have plans to try to minimise the effect that this group has on us, however we are talking about people who have so much more money than we do. Although they are untraceable, the Brethren receive donations from several major Australian businesses. Bob Brown and Christine Milne have both called for a Senate enquiry into the Brethren, but funnily enough the Coalition haven't agreed to that.

So Victorians reading this, keep an eye out for the Brethren, and don't believe what they say. We expect the Brethren to attack us hard on rural TV especially. So if you live in a rural seat, especially one that is represented by a National MP, write to your member and ask them to explain why they are accepting the support of such a group.

For more info on the Brethren see: www.bobbrown.org.au

116

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Comments (4)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Bali Nine

September 8th 2006 14:32

Been a little lapse with this in the past couple of days. I'd love to say that it was because I was doing something spectacular but actually Kmart had a sale on Xbox games and so I've been playing my new games.

As a result I am a little late on this piece on the members of the Bali Nine who have had their sentences changed from life imprisonment to death

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

John Howard the Scout?

September 5th 2006 11:37

2007 will be the 100th Anniversary of Scouting. To celebrate this Scouts Australia have announced they plan to get 100 celebrities to wear a Scout scarf to promote Scouting in Australia. One of the celebrities who have been approached is John Howard...

Now, the Scout scarf is one of the most important parts of a Scout uniform and you only can get it from a Scout Group once you have been invested. So, my question is, if John Howard is wearing a scarf, will we invest him into Scouts? And will we ask him to take the Scout Promise which asks a Scout, amongst other things, to "live by the Scout Laws"? Maybe they will, maybe John Howard will make that promise, but it would mean he'd have to change the way he's lived

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Comments (1)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Pay Your Way

September 4th 2006 13:03

Today I broke the law... technically.

The ticket machine on the tram to uni was broken and so, as a group, all of us who were passengers on the tram decided that this meant we got a free ride. So yes, I broke the law, but if a ticket inspector had caught me the chances of me having to pay my fine were very small

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Comments (1)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

The History Wars

September 3rd 2006 02:14

“John Howard has taken off the black arm band and used it to cover his eyes…”
-Greens’ Senator Bob Brown at Latrobe University, May 2006.

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

Thoughts of a Young Green

September 1st 2006 14:19

Just a quick post to welcome you to my blog.

I am a member of the Australian Greens in Melboure Australia and was one of the founding members of the Young Greens in Victoria. I am also the Campaign Manager for the Greens' Candidate for the State Election in the District of Kew

[ Click here to read more ]

Vote

Shared on

Young Green

AndrewH Friends

Comments (2)

Add Comments

[ Link ]

Posted By: AndrewH - Category: No Category

Email this Post to a Friend

June 2007

2 Posts