Off Topic With Ashley

The Greens are a socially progressive left wing party, and the third largest party in Australia in terms of votes. They have traditionally gained most traction with environmentally focused voters (obviously,) students, and other liberal thinkers. The party has seen a steadily increasing vote since its inception, and both my electorate and Indooroopilly (just across the road from me,) have amongst the highest patronage in Queensland.

As a minor party, they don’t tend to have much influence, especially as  Queensland is tradtionally a more conservative state. Ronan Lee — the ALP member for the Indooroopilly — defected to The Greens in 2008, but interestingly there are no other elected members in Queensland.

I can’t speak for past elections, but this year the only serious media coverage of the Queensland Greens has been related to their preferences. They haven’t been bombarding the airwaves (much) with snarky rhetoric like the big two parties either, opting to take advantage of social media and a more “grass roots” campaign. It’s very progressive and all, but I’m concerned that they may simply be preaching to the already converted.

On the policy front, the Queensland Greens are by far my favourite. They have a comprehensive and intelligent public transport and urban development policy outlined. As a cyclist, I’m eager for a more comprehensive cycle and footway network which they also outline plans for. They’re overly ambitious with their education policy, promoting better funding for the disadvantaged as well as subsidised TAFE education. They’re for desalinisation in preference to dams (which pollute more than desal, would you believe?) want to overhaul the government in terms of powers the premier has, as well as making things fairer for minorities. They also have a liberal view on human rights (at the federal level at least.)

There’s a few chords the Greens have struck with me this year: They’ve drafted a policy that would see a massive overhaul of public transport in Brisbane, as well as the (re-)introduction of a light rail/mass rapid transportation system for the Brisbane city area. They’ve also pledged to look into the feasibility of upgrading and re-opening previously abandoned rail routes, which is exactly what we need to boost our flagging transportation system. They’re also interested in exploring solar power, which I personally find to be a really exciting concept, especially now the consensus among scientists is that climate change is very definitely a problem.

I’ve tried to balance my posts somewhat by pointing out percieved flaws in the various parties policies, but I haven’t been able to find anything that glares at me from the Greens’ profile. Admittedly they haven’t got enough of a track record in modern history to go on, but if elected they could acheive even a quarter of their goals, I would be a very happy person indeed.

A problem I found when I started paying an interest in Australian politics is that both the major parties are far too conservative for the 21st century, and a lot of the policy they’re supporting reflects this. The Greens are many things, but I’d argue that in our political climate they’re villainised as being overly radical when they’re really not. On the contrary I’d say they’re one of the most intelligent choices on a civil liberties and public infrastructure front that’s available at this time. In any case, they’re a welcome left wing influence to counter the altogether not-left-enough Labor.