‘It is not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends
that in the end hurts us the most’
– Martin Luther King
History of the Greens Party in Tasmania
The 1989 Tasmanian election delivered wins for The Independents – ‘green’ candidates Di Hollister, Christine Milne, Lance Armstrong, Gerry Bates and Bob Brown. By 1991 they had changed their name to the Green Independents and in August 1992 they officially formed the Tasmanian Greens Party. They were to become Tasmania’s fourth major political party. Like the Democrats, they had grown out of the global peace and environment grassroots movements.
During the 1980s, many activists and citizens worked in the peace, aboriginal rights, environment, social justice and women’s movements. Many people who became founding members of the Greens Party in Tasmania were involved in one, or several, of these campaigns, but not all grassroots activists supported the formation of the Greens Party in Tasmania. Many activists thought the question of whether to Party or not to Party needed more consultation among grassroots participants. Some thought it would be preferable for interested people to stand as independent candidates, because the mechanisms of party politics would invariably lead to power becoming the focus, both for candidates/elected members, and for policy development within the Greens organisation.
At the outset, the founders of the Greens Party declared they would not be like other political parties, and their elected members would not play by the rule book of traditional party machines. The overall strategy was that a caucasing Green Party would break the stranglehold of the Liberal/Labor two-party system in Tasmania.
The rank and file members of the newly formed Greens Party sincerely believed that their party would be a bottom-up organisation, unlike the Labor and Liberal parties. They believed the Greens Party would listen to its members, and elected Greens MPs would listen to their constituents, to grassroots activists and to non-government organisations (NGOs). They had a vision of elected Greens MPs in the parliament, fully supporting their voter base to achieve the goals of a more accountable, transparent, socially and environmentally just, equitable and sustainable society.
Green supporters believed they would finally have a voice through parliamentary representation and the ear of at least some elected representatives in the Tasmanian parliament. They believed the elected Greens representatives would ‘act locally’, but also work as global citizens, because they understood the big challenges facing the Tasmanian community in a global economic context, especially since the implications of climate change and the decline of fossil fuel resources were looming large in the near future.
Failure of the Greens Party in Tasmania
So why has the Greens Party experiment recently failed so badly in Tasmania? How has the Greens Party become corrupted by the political machinations of party politics? Why are they part of a coalition government and why are they adopting a business as usual, top down approach, where elected MPs no longer ‘represent’ the ethically-based values and campaigns of their traditional grassroots supporters? What happened?
Tasmanian Greens leader and Minister in the coalition Labor/Greens Government, Nick McKim, and fellow Greens Minister, Cassy O’Connor have recently led the Greens into serious conflict with activists and grassroots organisations over the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.
Mike Bolan explained some of these issues in his September 2010 article on Tasmaniantimes.com
Are the Tasmanian Greens losing heart?
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/are-the-tasmanian-greens-losing-heart/show_comments
The Greens collaboration with The Wilderness Society, Environment Tasmania and the Australian Conservation Foundation has been condemned by many veteran activists as well as several ENGO’s who have withdrawn their membership of these conservation NGOs.
The disappointing conduct of the Tasmanian Greens politicians has also been highlighted in numerous other cases where these politicians, who originally were politicians determined to do it differently, have simply adapted to the modus operandi of politicians working under’ business as usual’ rules.
Recent examples of Greens MPs failing to respond with the normal courtesy and engagement one would previously have expected from them can be outlined by four toxic legacy waste case studies:
• Howrah (Wentworth Park) landfill and putative cancer cluster;
• Rosebery heavy metal poisoning;
• the Copping toxic waste tip; and
• the Grange Resource Savage River Mines tailings dam breach in March 2013
These are all issues where many citizens, some of whom have no political loyalties, have campaigned energetically and, in the case of Mrs Poppy Lopatniuk at Howrah, over many decades.
When tracking the performance of the elected Greens, it is apparent that they have implemented the well-known ‘fob off until they drop off’ technique. The same technique that is so often criticised by community members when doing battle with government bureaucrats or departments, especially in the pursuit of government information through Right To Information requests.
In earlier times, Greens MPs and their staff would assist citizens in gaining access to government information. (Note: the Green Independents were successful in proposing and having passed Tasmania’s first freedom of information statute in 1991.)
Greens – weak on policy and absent on action
These four case studies expose the fundamental failure of self regulation by industry to honestly monitor and report on compliance requirements in respect of pollution of the environment and communities. These case studies show that the EPA, a division of the Department of Primary Industry Parks Water and the Environment (DPIPWE), cannot be an independent regulator when it is hamstrung by the government’s direction to be a friend to industry.
The EPA regulates about 600 High Hazard Facilities but due to underresourcing and staffing can only inspect these facilities once a year. As a friend to industry the EPA duly notifies the facility of the time and date of its planned inspections.
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/article/new-evidence-tasmanian-epa-is-not-doing-its-job/
Cancer cluster – old Howrah landfill at Wentworth Park
In the Wentworth Park cancer cluster case – a well-researched and documented cancer cluster investigation conducted over 10 years by Poppy Lopatniuk and David Obendorf – the Greens have failed to publicly support the necessity for a proper public health investigation. Poppy and David’s research has identified a high incidence of cancers and other chronic diseases in people who lived in four residential streets adjoining an uncontrolled landfill in the Hobart suburb of Howrah, over a ten year period between 1965-75.
Mrs Lopatniuk contacted Tasmanian Greens Clarence Council alderman, Kay McFarlane, and met with her and a Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network (TPEHN) representative in 2011 to seek her support in raising the issue with Council. Kay McFarlane told Mrs Lopatniuk that when she first became an alderman with Clarence Council she had suffered numerous attacks from fellow aldermen because she was a member of the Greens. She explained that since then she had managed to develop good working relationships with her fellow councillors. She did not want to jeopardise those relationships, and therefore she would not raise the issue in Council. She declined to take any further action, or make any comment on the matters Mrs Lopatniuk had raised.
Since May this year Mrs Lopatniuk has been waiting to attend a meeting Nick McKim committed to arrange with the Cancer Registry, Dr Roscoe Taylor and himself.
She was extremely disappointed to receive an email on 15th July from Nick McKim …. as follows:
‘Nick and I met with Dr Roscoe Taylor and Professor Alison Venn this past Friday (July 15) to discuss concerns regarding the Wentworth Park site. Nick and I were able to garner a greater understanding of the Cancer Registry’s reporting structure and methods of data collation especially in relation to the data you have collected yourself. If you would like me to arrange a meeting between yourself and Nick to discuss the outcomes of the meeting, I can certainly find a convenient time.’
After all her years of hard work and perserverance in trying to bring this serious public health issue to the attention of the government and the health authorities, this was not the reply she had hoped for.
Most disappointing for Mrs Lopatniuk is the complete lack of acknowledgment from the Greens of the flawed nature of the investigations conducted by the EPA, Clarence Council and the DHHS into the Wentworth Park cancer cluster. There has been no acknowledgment of the credible and well documented research that she and others have produced. This lack of acknowledgment from the Greens puts them squarely in the same basket as their Labor coalition partners, and the Liberals as well.
Is this yet another case of Greens representation in local/state government coming at the price of inaction on previously-held core issues of policy?
Flawed investigations by DHHS and EPA on Rosebery heavy metal poisoning
In the Rosebery heavy metal poisoning case the key personnel are Greens deputy leader and environment spokesperson, Ms Cassy O’Connor, and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) head, Dr Roscoe Taylor. It is my view that Ms O’Connor failed to give Greens support for a credible public and environmental health investigation in Rosebery. When the Toxic Heavy Metals Taskforce (THMT) held a rally outside Parliament House in Hobart in June 2009, Ms O’Connor was invited to attend. She was asked not to put out any media release before first meeting with members of the Taskforce attending the rally. Ms O’Connor ignored this request, pumped out the standard Greens media release claiming territory over the issue and then failed to attend the rally. Ms O’Connor’s actions were viewed by the Rosebery residents as lacking respect and demonstrating a betrayal of trust.
Since the beginning of the Rosebery issues in 2008, the Greens have refused repeated requests from the Taskforce for a meeting. The Taskforce have sent copies of their critiques of the EPA/DHHS 2008-2010 investigations to the Greens four times, but received no acknowledgment of receipt of these documents or their contents.
Correspondence between Kay Seltitzas of the Taskforce and Greens MPs Cassy O’Connor and Paul O’Halloran exposes some of the difficulties the Taskforce has had over the years in their attempts to meet with any of the Greens. No member of the Liberal or Labor party has agreed to meet with the Taskforce either.
Earlier this year, Cradle Mountain Water discovered that the reticulated drinking water supply in Rosebery was contaminated with the toxic metal lead. This discovery of lead in the drinking water supply was a significant development in the Rosebery case as it pointed to the failure of the DHHS/EPA investigation in 2008-10 to properly assess all potential sources and pathways of exposure to metals for residents of Rosebery. In addition, the Taskforce recently received significant new information which backed its call for the quashing of all reports paid for by the government, and its request for a proper independent public and environmental health investigation into heavy metal contamination in Rosebery.
The recent attempts by Kay Seltitzas to meet with the Greens are indicative of the worst of their failures in dealing with critical public interest and public health issues relating to toxics in Tasmania. These should be bread and butter issues for the Greens.
On 20 May this year Ms Seltitzas posted an article on oldtt.pixelkey.biz titled Apologise.
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/article/apologise/
She stated that the Taskforce wanted a new inquiry into the 2008-2010 EPA/DHHS investigations and an urgent meeting with Premier Lara Giddings and Greens Minister Nick McKim.
… Paul O’Halloran’s office was the first to comment on the article …
‘Hi Kay,
If you would like to make a meeting with Greens Health Spokesperson and your local Member for Braddon, Mr Paul O’Halloran MP, I am sure he would be happy to discuss this concerning issue with you.
You can contact his office on XXXXXXXX
.
Mr O’Halloran is taking this matter very seriously as you will see from the media release he issued this morning that is also featured on this site.…
On 21 May Ms Seltitzas wrote to all Greens politicians requesting that they support the Taskforce’s call on Premier Lara Giddings to allocate $240,000 from the State budget for an inquiry to be ……
‘established into the EPA and DHHS Rosebery investigations that will review three key issues that remain outstanding:
1. Review all information on all emissions from MMG Rosebery mine for the last ten years.
2. Review the EPA investigation especially regarding gas monitoring.
3. Review the DHHS investigation especially regarding information supplied by Dr Roscoe Taylor to toxicologists Professors Priestley, Braitberg and Daly.
We consider that once the first part of this review is conducted into all emissions data from the Rosebery mine then it will easily be determined what the scope of the following two Reviews will need to investigate.
……….. your support will (be) making it clear to all people in Tasmania that ‘public health’ really is your priority and that the Greens will not support a position that will only entrench secrecy, give legitimacy to mining companies rights to hide behind the mantra of commercial in confidence and effectively result in the continuation of state sanctioned poisoning of the residents of Rosebery.’
On 21 May Paul O’Halloran issued a media release calling for independent oversight of the Rosebery ‘lead in water’ investigations. Without speaking with Ms Seltitzas about the new information she wanted to discuss with the Greens, Paul O’Halloran said:
‘The Greens are not disputing the results of previous investigations at Rosebery…’
Here:
http://mps.tas.greens.org.au/2013/05/call-for-independent-oversight-of-rosebery-investigation/
After several more telephone calls, on the 4 June Ms Seltitzas wrote to Paul O’Halloran and Kim Booth to ask why she had not received a date for the proposed meeting within the three week time frame initially suggested by (a) Greens staffer:
‘After extending a public invitation to meet with me several weeks ago on oldtt.pixelkey.biz, I have yet to receive a reply from you to set the date for this appointment? ………..
I have explained the issues to you many times before now about the health risks from numerous pathways of exposure to heavy metals for residents of Rosebery and the tragically flawed DHHS/EPA investigations conducted in 2008/10………..
I do not want to waste any more of my time in appealing to the Tasmanian Greens on an issue that you appear to be avoiding because of your fear of backlash at the polls. I understand that after your war with the forest industry that you do not want to enter into a war with the mining industry. No doubt this is one of your apprehensions with supporting our call for the overturning of the findings of the previous DHHS/EPA 2008-2010 investigations and establishment of an independent public and environmental health investigation in Rosebery.’
On 27 May Paul O’Halloran issued a media release about the success of the Greens bid for a $100,000 budget allocation for a feasibility study to establish a centre of excellence in mine remediation in Queenstown, but no mention was made about the Taskforce request for a budget allocation for the Rosebery investigation.
Here:
http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/1528565/bid-for-mining-centre/
On 19 June Ms Seltitzas finally wrote to Ms O’Connor to again seek a meeting with the Greens.
‘I am writing to you because when you were a member of the Greens Opposition in the Tasmanian parliament you made a public statement in 2008 in support of the need for a proper public and environmental health investigation in Rosebery.
On your website it states ‘Cassy cares deeply about the children of Tasmania and will always stand up for clean air and uncontaminated water……’ .
As part of your environment portfolio the Toxic Heavy Metals Taskforce Tasmania are writing to you about the failure of any members of the Tasmanian Greens to meet with our Taskforce to discuss a number of developments on the Rosebery heavy metal poisoning issues. These developments include the Cradle Mountain Water discovery of high levels of lead and other metals in the reticulated drinking water supply in Rosebery.
I was personally invited via a public invitation posted on the oldtt.pixelkey.biz website to contact Paul O’Halloran’s office for a meeting to discuss the latest developments on heavy metal poisoning in Rosebery not all of which are yet in the public domain.
After the DHHS/EPA released their Final Report in April 2009 our Taskforce called on Dr Roscoe Taylor to quash these findings and we provided to him a detailed report as to why he should do this. We sent a copy of our reasons to you at the time. The DHHS/EPA investigation clearly set out to protect the Rosebery mine operators and not the community’s health. When you telephoned me on this issue in 2009 I said that I believed that the Arnold family had been deliberately excluded from the investigation especially Makayla and her unborn child, and that in addition to numerous other reasons, this indicated there had been a DHHS orchestrated cover up on the whole matter. (heresay deleted)
Below I have included recent correspondence with both Paul O’Halloran and Kim Booth’s office regards a meeting with them about the new information that our Taskforce want to discuss. (inference deleted)
Our Taskforce have been deeply disturbed by the Greens refusal to meet to discuss these issues with us since April 2009 and we hope that you will reconsider your approach to impartially assessing our documents.
I look forward to your earliest response to set a time for a meeting with all members of the Tasmanian Greens about this very urgent issue which all members have a stake in as soon as possible.’
Ms Seltitzas received no reply from Ms O’Connor. On 10 July Paul O’Halloran finally telephoned her to arrange a meeting to discuss the Rosebery issues. An arrangement was made to meet on Wednesday 17 July at Salamanca. Late on Monday afternoon Ms Seltitzas received a call from Mr O’Halloran’s office to say that he and … would meet her at the Retro Cafe and they would then go to a quieter venue somewhere in Salamanca. At 10am on Tuesday morning (she) rang to say to Ms Seltitzas that she had not arrived at the scheduled meeting and that Mr O’Halloran was waiting for her. Ms Seltitzas, totally astonished, explained that the invitation was for Wednesday not Tuesday. She was told she would not be able to meet with Mr O’Halloran again while he was in Hobart and that the Minister would be sending some information instead. Late on Tuesday night, Mr O’Halloran sent an email inviting Ms Seltitzas to meet him in his offices at 10am the following morning. This correspondence was not received until 11am Wednesday morning.
This shows appalling treatment by the Greens of a community activist who has bent over backwards to meet with them, and it is deplorable. Ms Seltitzas has written to Mr O’Halloran again suggesting that she is willing to meet him in his Ulverstone office but has not received a reply.
Like Mrs Lopatniuk and the Greens response to the Wentworth Park issues, Ms Seltitzas is disappointed that the Greens have given the Taskforce no acknowledgment of receipt of their critiques. Neither have they acknowledged the credibility of their well researched and professionally backed documents. There has been no acknowledgment!
For over three years the Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network also failed in attempts to meet with Greens members to discuss key public health and environmental health related mining issues, and the need for the Greens to develop a stronger mining policy. The Greens have avoided making any comments critical of the activities of the mining industry in Tasmania, other than continuing to raise vague, general objections to the establishment of new mines in the Tarkine.
Grange Resources Savage River Mine tailings dam spill
Mr O’Halloran also failed to follow up on any of the controversy over Grange Resources Savage River mine spill in March this year, although he did make a brief statement about the need for transparency in any investigation into the spill.
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php/article/alex-schaap-was-incorrect
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/grange-resources-investigates-tailings-dam-spill/
On 31 May this year the Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network submitted a Right To Information (RTI) application to the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment (DPIPWE) seeking information on emissions from the tailings dam spill incidents that occurred some time between the 10 March and 15 March at Grange Resources Savage River Mine.
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?%2Fweblog%2Farticle%2Falex-schaap-was-incorrect%2F
In late June TPEHN received a decision on our application saying that the information would be exempt under the RTI Act.
The reasons given were:
‘Decision Summary
I have decided that all of the information you have requested is exempt information under section 30(1)(a)(i) and section 30(1)(f) of the Act. The reasons for my decision are discussed below.
Information relating to enforcement of the law
Section 30 states that:
(1)Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be reasonably likely to –
(a) prejudice –
(i)the investigation of a breach or possible breach of the law; or …….
(f) hinder, delay or prejudice an investigation of a breach or possible breach of the law which is not yet complete.
The information requested is the subject of a formal investigation into possible breaches of the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994 (EMPCA) to which an investigator from the EPA’s investigation unit has been assigned. The investigation is being carried out in keeping with national standards, namely the Australian Government Investigation Standard. Files are kept under lock and key and all evidence remains confidential until the investigation and any resultant compliance action has been completed. In the course of the investigation, evidence and facts about the matter are considered in their entirety for compliance assessment.
To obtain the information relevant to your request from the EPA at this point in time would hinder, delay and be likely to prejudice their ability to complete the investigation in a timely and appropriate manner.
I note your intention, as expressed in your application, to “use the disclosed material to inform a community debate about appropriate operating procedures at mining facilities, monitoring, response and investigation protocols and remediation issues”. Such an action at this time would be likely to prejudice the investigation by possibly compromising due process and by not affording natural justice to the party under investigation.
Please note that section 30(1) is not subject to the public interest requirements listed in section 33 of the Act.
You may submit another application pursuant to the Act at such time as the investigation has been completed. The Department cannot advise you as to when that date may be. You are advised to monitor the EPA website ( http://www.epa.tas.gov.au ) for news and updates on this matter.’
On 24 July TPEHN contacted the RTI Officer at DPIPWE and was told that the EPA (a division of DPIPWE) had not finalised its investigation and it could possibly take over one year.
It appears the EPA is investigating activities that could be in breach of Grange Resources mine licence conditions. To our knowledge the statement from DPIPWE contained in their response above about the ongoing EPA investigation has not been released in the public domain. This is another example of obfuscation from a government department clearly reluctant to release information in the public interest about the activities of one of Tasmania’s biggest mining corporations. A corporation like all the others in Tasmania who are allowed to self regulate.
This RTI exemption from the EPA should ring alarm bells for the Greens, as best practise in the USEPA mandates for public release of all information about EPA investigations as they are being conducted.
Proposed Copping C-cell Facility
The performance of Tim Morris over the community backlash against the proposed Copping C-cell development is indicative again of a lack of strong policy direction from the Greens on the performance of the EPA.
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php?/weblog/article/greens-a-tad-yellow-on-copping-dump/
‘To date Tim Morris’ concerns have focused on the failures of the community consultation aspect of the SWS proposal and not the science of risk management of hazardous waste or the best practice landfill technology available in the 21st Century.
It is a concern within the community that Green aldermen from participating Councils that make up the Southern Water Solutions corporation have also been conspicuously silent on the issue of the proposed Copping Contaminated Cell facility.
A recent meeting with one Green alderman highlighted a disturbing degree of apprehension that the Greens Party seem to have on this issue. An unwillingness to even discuss such an important issue with a concerned ratepayer who probably voted for them is very worrying indeed.
The development of the first Contaminated Cell waste site facility in Tasmania seems to have caught the Greens Party on the hop. Surely this should have been a matter for State Government to sponsor and for the State Government to undertake a thorough community engagement on at all stages of the assessment process.
To date the Tasmanian Greens have only spoken out about the level of community consultation conducted by SWS as the bare minimum and inadequate. Indeed the Tasmanian EPA proformas expect any proponent to have fulfilled comprehensive community consultation before making such applications for permits.
The inadequacy of the community consultation process before Council ticked off on the SWS proposal and before permits were issued by the EPA should invalidate this existing application.
Mr Morris when did the Tasmanian Greens stop scrutinizing all aspects to development proposals of state significance?’
The Copping tip case is another example of the Greens Party’s failure to highlight deficiencies in the EPA’s ability to conduct rigourous assessments and act independently.
Greens – No acknowledgement on many more toxics cases in Tasmania
These four cases are the tip of the iceberg of toxics pollution cases in Tasmania, where the Greens have failed to take up the issues steadily growing in Tasmania’s unclean, ungreen environment.
In March this year, we heard the expose by ABC Radio National’s Background Briefing program Don’t Drink the Water about the five north eastern Tasmanian towns now unable to drink from the reticulated water supply because of contamination with lead:
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php/article/poisoned-water
This program also mentioned TPEHN research on toxic metal contaminated waterways in Tasmania which currently number a shocking 62 waterways. The St Pauls River at Royal George was found to have arsenic levels in the water 200 times the Australian Drinking Water Guidlines and lead at 50 times the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Yet no Green member of Parliament has called for the Department of Health to provide free comprehensive health checks for residents who have been consuming this contaminated water for many years.
Over the last several years, the Greens also failed to support Lenah Valley residents, including Belinda MacIintosh, affected by noise and dust pollution and the EPA’s appalling failure to monitor the K&D Brickworks site for over 19 years. Lenah Valley residents had been grappling with pollution problems from the K&D Brickworks since the 1970’s without any resolution.
Here:
http://oldtt.pixelkey.biz/index.php/article/who-is-going-to-hold-this-company-to-account
The Greens also failed to develop any integrated policy action in support of Dianna Graf and Mark Cornelius in the Elizabeth Street electroplaters arsenic poisoning case. In this case two employees of investigative agencies involved told the residents that they had been told to step back from their investigations on the case, in one case this was from a ministerial directive.
Here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-12/toxic-poisoning/4310844
https://www.facebook.com/CleanUpToxicTasmania
Based on the experiences of many concerned citizens and activists in Tasmania the Greens have avoided the critical role they were initially charged with, from the grassroots up – to protect public and environmental health.
The real costs of Green power?
In coalition government the elected Greens have become little more than Labor party pawns in a continuing battle, conveniently and simplistically styled as – ‘it’s them – the Libs – or it’s us”. They have attempted to appropriate political and social capital from the work of grassroots movements while avoiding direct discussions with them. The Greens have increasingly taken to negotiating behind closed door deals using favoured ENGO allies in making those deals, negotiating the appointment of favoured consultants to produce the required reports and apparently allowing personal relationships to interfere with their independent judgment. Above all else they have lost sight of their ethical roots amidst the high drama of the adversarial parliamentary theatre.
With the impending threats from climate change and global energy/water/resource depletion the Tasmanian Green politicians will need to confront some of the policy challenges that in coalition government they have shrewdly stepped away from. The most important of these policy challenges for the Greens is the need for public opposition to the deeply flawed self regulatory framework for private industry.
Everywhere public health is being put at risk by polluting industries across Australia, EPA’s are consistently failing to independently regulate, monitor and police their activities. Behind these EPA’s are the more powerful gatekeepers for the corporate sector, the state Health Departments, which too often defend the interests of corporations to the detriment of the community’s health.
The big polluters, especially mining corporations, frequently avoid the penalty of hefty fines. They put significant pressure on the National Health and Medical Research Council, which is reluctant to bring Australia up to par with best practice environmental standards comparable to the USEPA, some European countries or the World Health Organisation.
All the case studies the Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network has worked on, in collaboration with members of the community across Tasmania, paint a tragic picture of Greens silence on government denial and collusion with industry to mitigate against responsibility for public health impacts and environmental remediation, and on the suppression of the public’s right to know.
The grassroots no longer have the trust they believed they were entitled to expect from a Greens Party and its elected members. While the Greens continue to flounder in the halls of power the grassroots will look to Independent candidates to fill the vacuum the Greens have left in the Parliament. There is a strong community call for voices in the parliament that will, without fear or favour, speak truth to power.
The Greens will not be judged at the next election on how many jobs they have created or in what industry they were created. The Greens will be judged by the community on how honestly they have performed their role in the Tasmanian parliament. Have they sincerely listened to their constituents? Have they truly represented them and given them a voice? Have they had the moral courage to stand up to the might of the corporations, as good global citizens must?
