The risk for Labor

The risk for Labor is the more it tries to appeal to inner-city Greens voters, the more it alienates the mainstream majority of voters in the suburbs who do not share the Greens’ post-materialist values. It is a classic wedge. Labor’s “light green” inner-city candidates campaigned on asylum-seeker rights, gay marriage and cycleways. Labor was once the party of workers and was motivated by economic opportunity and social progress. Chasing Greens voters is a dead end for Labor. The real danger is losing votes on its right flank. The Coalition is Labor’s real enemy.

The Greens are a hypocritical fringe party. Many of their voters send their kids to private schools while lamenting funding for public schools. They want a fairer tax system while negatively gearing an extensive property portfolio. They worry about coal-seam gas mining thousands of kilometres from where they live. They enjoy trains, trams and buses close to the CBD but complain about motorways designed to alleviate congestion for commuters who can’t afford inner-city homes trying to get to work from the outer suburbs. Many are clueless about Greens policies to close Sydney Airport or introduce death duties. The Greens put emotion before sound policy.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/folly-for-labor-to-go-green/story-e6frg71x-1227286785540

3 comments

Re death duties...I have mentioned this before Pete.  I bet many who vote Greens did not know this was part of their policy platform. 

However, prior to the last electon they had a re-think on their policies and this one has been abandoned (I wonder for how long).

Here is a good link re what they have changed..  Note the comment about the Greens made by Albanese at the bottom of the article  LOL

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greens-go-mainstream-with-policy-rework-20121226-2bwl4.html

The Geens do not abandon their policies or views , Radi, they hide them , like one world government..

if anyone knew their real policies they would be reduced to three per cent . The Core voters for the Greens are Rich inner city academics who are poisoning our kids minds with their anti aspirationals propaganda.

They won't last fringe parties never do , the democrats were much bigger than the greens are but where are they??

Your fear of the Greens is laughable Pete. You are doing no more than regurgitating right-wing propaganda. If anyone wants to know Greens policies and what they stand for they only need to google it and pete's rubbish will be shown up for exactly what it is - garbage!!!

It's not me who have to fear the greens as I am not a supporter of the Labor party. 

You can go onto the Greens Site and look under policies . There are no detailed policies just aims . And certainly no mention of Bob Browns views on world order when he was leader . 

I don't know where you are looking then because there are very detailed policies well set out on the Greens site.

Here is greens economic policies for our trillion dollar economy ...It is taken from their web site under policies economic ...

While big mining companies and banks make more profits we lack the funds to invest in health, education, infrastructure, employment and protecting the environment. Global warming is costing Australia every second – the costs will increase and become impossible to control.

Instead of fixing the mining tax to invest in things we need – the old parties are turning away from people in favour of billionaires and mining companies. 

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

The economy should serve people, not the other way around.  Despite the Australian economy doing well, pressure on families is increasing and inequality is growing. Meanwhile mining companies and the big banks continue to make billion dollar profits.

Only the Greens have the guts to stand up to billionaire companies so we can manage our economy in a way that cares for people and the environment.

WHAT WE STAND FOR

The Greens will stand up to big business and mining companies. We want to manage the economy in a way that cares for people and our environment. We need to move from a dig it up, cut it down, ship it away economy to the clean innovative highly educated economy for the future. This includes protecting the clean air, water and stable climate we all depend on. 

The Greens will close tax loopholes that benefit only mining corporations and big business so that we can invest in jobs, education and protecting our environment. 

As you can see there are no policies just nutty statements ,,,

Brown's global parliament: scary proposition
OPINION
By Chris Berg
Updated 14 Jul 2011, 8:44am

Bob Brown's call for a global parliament isn't crazy. That's the problem.

Speaking at the National Press Club in late June, the Greens leader asked "Why shouldn't we now join vigorous moves in Europe and at the United Nations for a global people's assembly based on one person, one vote, one value?"

Brown gave this future parliament a wide range of responsibilities – from financial policy to defence to wealth redistribution and third world development.

He's hardly alone. Woodrow Wilson, Jeremy Bentham, H.G. Wells, and Albert Einstein all proclaimed their desire for a parliament of the world. Nominal conservatives too: in 1947, Winston Churchill claimed "unless some effective world super-government can be set up and brought into action, the prospects for peace and human progress are dark and doubtful."

Sure, there are lots of reasons why a future world parliament is unlikely; reasons which were quickly cited after Brown's speech. (And one wonders why he chose to explore this fantasy in a major forum just days before the Greens took the Senate.)

But to understand why a world parliament is undesirable, we have to ask why the Greens leader would want a world parliament in the first place.

Such a parliament would not be a forum for diplomacy. We already have one of those. Instead, its purpose would be to impose binding legislation on every corner of the globe.

A carbon price enacted by a global parliament would remove the potential for firms to simply shift across national borders to avoid the cost increases. And the parliament would be able to impose a "Robin Hood" tax without fear that finance simply goes elsewhere. There would be nowhere else to go.

But Brown might discover such a parliament might pass laws he doesn't like. One cannot assume a global legislative structure will always share the policy preferences of a minor antipodean political party.

And whatever legislation it did pass would be binding for the entire world, no matter how misguided or illiberal.

It should be needless to say, but there are advantages having lots of jurisdictions – countries, states, provinces - with lots of different legislative bodies.

We frequently look to other countries for policy ideas to adopt. Or avoid.

A few weeks ago I argued the only reason gay and lesbian people in New York are now able to marry is because legal power over marriage is held by New York State, not Washington DC. A small jurisdiction is able to be more progressive than a large one.

A global parliament – with an inevitably expanding mandate – would slowly erode the possibility of policy experimentation.

(This is an expanded version of the Australian argument between those who would like Canberra to assume more power and those who think decentralised government is better government.)

The idea that democratic power should be as close to the people it governs is an old one.

A global parliament is one of the most liberty-threatening proposals ever suggested by a mainstream Australian politician.

The most important and most undervalued insight of liberal philosophy is the concept of "exit".

David Hume said "every man ought to be supposed a knave". We ought to suppose governments, parliaments, corporations, societies, and communities are knaves as well. Through brute force or just subtle social coercion, each can oppress us, limit our individual freedom, or just make life tougher than it should be. Not that they always will. But that they could.

from the raving loony right wing rat bags the ABC 

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