Rachel Evans, Sydney
On October 11, 200 people packed out Gleebooks for the launch of Bob Brown: Gentle Revolutionary by James Norman. With the Greens consolidating as the third force in Australian parliamentary politics, the book's timely release met with huge interest.
Norman congratulated the Coalition on their victory of keeping interest rates for the election at an all-time low. Peter Thompson, journalist and writer of Bob Brown of the Franklin River, chaired the affair.
Addressing the launch, Brown said: "We shouldn't allow the blackness of the situation to predominate. There have been worse situations: The Liberals' victory [in Tasmania] in 1982, heralding a major attack on the Franklin River was very hard. It's not possible, but inevitable, that Howard will become history."
Brown recounted the scare campaign against the Greens waged by sections of the corporate media, spearheaded by Murdoch's Sydney Daily Telegraph which claimed the Greens advocated "handing out ecstasy and heroin to kids". He examined Family First's likely win of the sixth Victorian Senate position with under 2% of the vote. "The Greens got 9% of the Senate vote. Family First won the seat from Democrat and ALP preferences. The ALP deliberately chose not to preference the Greens", Brown commented.
Thompson asked Brown if the Greens should desist from being "green left" and become the "green right". Brown replied: "No! Petra Kelly [German Greens MP who was shot in mysterious circumstances in 1992] noted that the Greens are not left or right but out in front. We are a values party not just focused on economics."
Thompson asked if this was really the case, referring to Brown's indication of support for the full privatisation of Telstra, conditional on securing protection for some of Tasmania's forests. Brown responded: "I did launch that balloon, but fortunately my party pulled me into line. If I had agreed, we would not have been able to get so much out of the Liberals in the recent forest agreement."
Thompson asked if "the Greens want power or are you satisfied with playing the opposition?" Brown responded: "Absolutely, we want power. And we are in favour of building relationships. In Tasmania in 1989 we signed an accord with the ALP with a $100 million deficit. We backed the ALP's budget cuts with people protesting outside. [Through the accord] we secured a doubling of the World Heritage List. Greens stuck to the accord; the ALP were the ones who broke it."
In discussion, a shop steward with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union noted that the Electrical Trades Union had donated $20,000 to the Greens. Within the union movement, the CFMEU's forestry division is "a blight", the shop steward added.
Asked what the Greens' attitude to the forestry union was, Brown responded: "Four-hundred Tasmanian timber workers lost their jobs recently. Labor and the Liberals voted down a Greens initiative to restructure the industry and secure jobs. Union representatives are on the side of $65 million forest profit."
From Green Left Weekly, October 20, 2004.
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