Antony Loewenstein writes regular Webdiary column Engineering consent, about the workings of the media.
“You only have to read history to see that if you want to change the world, get ready to be crushed by those with the most to lose.” Bob Brown, Greens leader, April 2004
Maxine McKew wrote in 2002 that Greens leader Bob Brown was “the de facto chief of the disenchanted left.” Back then, national polling had the progressive party at 8% of the primary vote across the country.
Two years later, a recent Newspoll has confirmed that Australians care deeply about the environment. Nine out of ten polled said they wanted Tasmania�s old growth forests protected from logging and future development. The Greens are set to take around 9% of the primary vote in the upcoming election. The Greens have therefore grown into the only serious third force in Australian politics.
Brown articulated the feeling of hundreds of thousands of Australians on 14 February, 2003, when speaking at a public rally in Melbourne against the impending war in Iraq:
While Iraq has been an issue through all these years, in none of his election wins has our Prime Minister John Howard sought or been given a mandate to attack Iraq. He has no mandate from Green or Democrat voters. He has no mandate from Labor voters. He has no mandate from National Party or Liberal voters. He has no mandate at all.
Brown�s stand makes him a unique figure on the national political scene.
In his new book Memo for a Saner World (Penguin), Brown records his lifelong struggles on environmental issues, the growth of the Greens and his vision for a future Australia. The introduction quotes Indian global activist and writer, Vandana Shiva, and highlights the rule by which Brown himself plays � harnessing the spirit in world affairs:
A spiritual leaning used to mean total inactivity in the world, while activism tended to be associated with violence. But suddenly the only people who seem to have the courage to act are the deeply spiritual – because it�s only those who know there is another world, another dimension, who are not intimidated by the world of organised power.
In an interview for Webdiary, Brown said the mainstream media�s coverage of the Greens had improved in recent years, but that the media elite had been slow to understand the rise of the movement:
I think in Canberra, the Press Gallery judges an issue whether there is a difference between Labor and Liberal, and not on whether there should be a different point of view to Labor and Liberal. The clearest thing is the environment. It comes up along with health and education and unemployment as one of the big issues of the day with the electorate�s mind, way above tax and superannuation, but it�s left off the agenda by the senior commentators in Canberra. Unless there is a political stoush, (which there very rarely), Labor and Liberal see eye to eye as they do in the current historically high rate of destruction of Tasmania�s forests.
A perfect example of the mainstream media�s scepticism came when Labor leader Mark Latham visited the Styx Forest in Tasmania in March. Rather than examining the issues around environmental policy, many commentators preferred to focus on Latham�s motivation for visiting the Apple Isle. Brown, however, was pleased with Latham�s visit:
John Howard didn�t come and see the forests but signed their death warrants, which was the Regional Forest Agreements in 1997. Mark Latham has come to see the forests and I respect and admire that. He isn�t a Greenie by any means, or an environmentalist, but he recognises that the Australian electorate does rate the environment highly, so it�s important to leave the door open for Labor to change.
Brown isn�t under any illusions that Labor is going to fundamentally change its policy.
The difficulty, of course, is that Labor is the problem in Tasmania. So what�s new? The Franklin campaign, or the Daintree in Queensland or Kakadu, these have all been huge problems and it’s taken leadership, very often in Canberra, to come out with the right results. In the case of the Daintree rain forest, there are now 4000 jobs coming out of that World Heritage area. And ditto with the Franklin.
During Latham�s visit to Tasmania, he announced no cessation of wood chipping or logging of old forests and pledged to continue supporting the clear-felling of old growth forests until 2010.
Throughout Memo for a Saner World, Brown urges Australians to see beyond the two-party political system and embrace the Greens as the alternative to the materialism of big party politics. There is no question that the Greens are gaining momentum as a world movement. In early April, a Greens Prime Minister was installed in Latvia, a world first,and Brown sees the global trend mirrored across Australia:
We�ve seen more than 50 local government councillors elected in NSW, including Jan Barham, the first directly elected Green head of state of a local government, if you like, in Byron Bay. You put them all together, and it seems they are small steps on a huge political platform, but we are a global movement and we do have a fresh ethic and we do have solutions.
At the end of the book, Brown outlines a 10-point plan for future Prime Ministers, and “how to make Australia a proud, compassionate, independent nation”. He includes pulling Australian troops out of Iraq and “lending a global effort to divert some of the US$1 trillion annual weapons budget so that every child on Earth has food, clean water and a school to attend”.
I hope Mark Latham or John Howard adopts the 10-point plan and puts the Greens out of business�, says Brown, �but that�s not going to happen, is it?
For young people especially – and if recent polling is correct, around 20% of young people support the Greens – the progressive party is bringing optimism. Brown thinks he knows why:
We do offer an alternative to the short-sighted, exploitative and greedy politics of now. I think the optimism comes out of saying �We can get hope back into the equation, We can look after the next generation�s interests’. Our long-term view is rather than just looking at the next election, will people thank us 100 years from now?
It�s the politics of hope, rather than division or fear, lifting the Greens in the polls, especially amongst some traditional Labor voters disillusioned with their party since Tampa and 9/11.
Brown is constantly confronted with doubters about the Green�s integrity and long-term viability. In the book’s introduction, he responds to the charge that a vote for the Greens is a ‘wasted vote’:
In fact, it has double the value. Under Australia�s preferential voting system, if your minor party is not elected, your whole vote goes to your major party preference. Better still, an increase in the Greens� vote indicates to the big parties where your real policy preference lies.”
With world political moods shifting to the right and a tendency to embrace conservative narratives as policy, Brown says the party is in a stronger position today than political pundits ever predicted.
The predictions of doom and gloom, that we were a flash in the pan, and that we had nowhere to go, all of which I�ve had hauled at me by the Tasmanian media and other parties in the national media, are patently wrong.
Last year�s visit of US President George W. Bush brought our national political dramas to a worldwide audience, thanks to a smuggled CNN camera into Parliament that captured Brown and fellow Senator, Kerry Nettle, interjecting during Bush�s speech. Brown said he and Nettle were very nervous before the protest:
I made it clear that if nerves got the better of us, it would be okay to stay seated: it would be a daunting scene.
Mainstream commentators generally agreed on the inappropriateness of the protest, deeming it unseemly and undemocratic. Brown suggests this is a perfect example of how out of touch the media has become:
There is a much different view out there in Australia than the doyens of the Press Gallery express. And they�re out of touch, not us. And particularly when it comes to the idea of uttering a syllable while George Bush was speaking, rather than an exercise in democracy. Australians have responded to what Kerry and I did positively and we did the right thing.
Despite a dip in Greens support after the Bush and Chinese President, Hu Jintao�s visit, their numbers have risen again, to 9%. Brown�s ideal foreign policy is that Australia [should be] an independent player on the world scene:
We�ve got so much to give this region. We�re the wealthiest country in the region, if not the world. We�re democratic, we�re a country who believes in a fair go, and we�ve got much more than Howard�s politics and bending the knee to the White House, to offer the world.
With conflict in Iraq becoming a more brutal affair by the day, the reasons behind Australia�s involvement in Bush�s endeavour are likely to remain on the agenda until election day. Andrew Wilkie, former intelligence officer at the Officer of National Assessments, will run as a Green in the seat of Bennelong against the Prime Minister. Wilkie resigned before the Iraq war, saying the Howard government exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam. He also anticipated a humanitarian disaster after an invasion. Brown feels that Wilkie�s dedication to the truth makes him a perfect candidate:
I was impressed with his integrity. To be able to take a stand like he did is rare and precious thing in politics.
We come from different backgrounds. We do come from different points of view, but having come from a conservative background myself, I recognise how the Greens don�t sit on the political spectrum easily.
Wilkie had talks with Labor, the Demcorats, and Meg Lees Progressive Alliance before joining the Greens. “I am attracted to the underlying principles in the Greens, in particular their understanding of the importance of social justice in all its forms, their strong pro-environment stance and their equally strong anti-war stance”
Brown said that “being in politics is a priveledge, not a daunting thing, and putting oneself on the line in public shouldn�t be reserved for steely hard men who like mind treading on other peoples� hands and faces”.
It�s terrific Andrew Wilkie’s running in Bennelong. He wanted to run against Howard. He�s really saying that Howard�s politics need strong alternatives, and right in the cockpit, right in the PM�s own seat. He�s standing there. He�s a realist, but I think it does draw attention to the Prime Ministerial politics and the fact that whether it�s Bennelong or the whole of Australia, there are better alternatives.
With rapidly improving communication, the Greens philosophy on globalisation is becoming a worldwide progressive call for an alternative approach to government. With the major parties merely rearranging interchangeable policies, Brown stresses the importance of understanding the revolution we are currently experiencing:
We are a globalising world community and you can�t just globalise the economy. There is a greater humanity and respect for this planet and for coming generations in the populace than there is in the political elite in the age of materialism. And whether you�re looking at Mr. Putin in Russia or Mr. Howard in Canberra or Mr. Hu in Beijing, the rampant materialism at the expense of other values, like our humanity, and the well-being of the planet, is worrying people.
When Mark Latham was in Tasmania, I said there is a mood of change. I think we�ll get a big spending budget and maybe an accolade for Mr. Howard from President Bush and an early election. Mark Latham is an untested leader but he�s shown that he�s prepared to be different to John Howard and he�s prepared to tackle John Howard. It�s made politics exciting. And the Greens are here saying we�ve got a really progressive alternative.
The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, believes the Greens �will win all Senate positions not won by the big parties� at the election, because “One Nation and the Democrats now look to be in permanent decline, perhaps victims of their lack of ideology”.
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Further reading
Bob Brown�s speeches from 1996 to 2004.
The Age journalist Michelle Grattan on the Green�s influence and Amanda Lohrey�s Quarterly Essay on the Rise of the Greens”, November 2002.
The Bulletin�s Maxine McKew interview with Bob Brown in September 2002.
The CNN report of October 24, 2003 on Brown�s interjection to George W. Bush.
aloewenstein@f2network.com.au