By Bruce Threlfo
The conscience vote for parliamentarians is becoming an important question for the green movement. The Denison Greens, set up in Tasmanian green independent MP Bob Brown's electorate as a prototype green party branch, has adopted a constitution which allows the conscience vote on all issues for its parliamentary representatives. The Franklin Greens (in Gerry Bates' electorate) are in the process of drafting their constitution, and it's very likely that they too will allow a conscience vote.
This poses serious questions about the functioning of parliamentary representatives from the green movement. While abortion is the immediate issue, the conscience vote question can be expected to arise concerning many issues in the future.
Should the fundamental freedom of women to make their own choices about their fertility be left to individual parliamentarians' (mostly male) consciences? This is particularly contradictory when, as a result of the mass campaigns carried out by women in the '70s, public opinion today is in favour of women's right to choose.
In the '70s, women inside the ALP campaigned against the conscience vote on abortion. One of their main arguments was that the ALP's parliamentary wing should be accountable to party policy.
The right wing of the party pushed for a conscience vote precisely so that it could ignore progressive policies adopted by a number of state branches. Women activists warned that the conscience vote was a dangerous precedent, paving the way for parliamentarians to wriggle off the hook on policy voted by the rank and file.
The ALP has moved a long way down that road since then. No longer do ALP parliamentarians even pretend to be accountable to the rank and file. The policy-making forums of the party today are ineffective; Labor parliamentarians wheel and deal with the powers that be, implementing policy as they choose.
The conscience vote, on abortion or any other issue, is inextricably linked to the accountability of parliamentary representatives. A conscience vote means that, in the end, the views of the parliamentary representative count more than the views of the thousands of activists in the movement. It defines their role as being above the movement and totally undermines a fundamental premise of green politics: accountability and grassroots democracy.
Developing policies
The abortion issue in Tasmania also points to the question of policy. The principles of an ecologically sustainable economy, peace and non-violence, social justice and grassroots democracy should define the broad framework of a genuine green politics, a framework. Within that framework, specific policies have to be developed through thorough discussion and decision by the grassroots movement.
The lack of any policy discussion in the initiative taken to set up a national green party by Bob Brown, Senator Jo Vallentine and others, is of some concern. The letter sent out to green electoral groups putting forward this proposal was accompanied by a detailed structure proposal, with no attempt to address questions of policy.
Making policy the preserve of parliamentarians would be extremely detrimental to the green movement. This is exactly how the ALP functions today: the party ranks have virtually no say over policies of the parliamentary wing. Greens must insist that policy is everybody's business.
These questions need to be tackled as a matter of urgency. In Tasmania, three out of the five green independents have no green party structures in their electorates. Hence there is no process of accountability, rotation or recallability.
It's not just a question of keeping parliamentarians honest. Placing parliamentarians above the movement is contradictory to building the kind of grassroots movement which greens aspire to and which is necessary to bring about fundamental social change. It assumes that parliamentarians, rather than mass activity by ordinary people, are the means to change the world.
Policy on an issue like abortion should be thoroughly discussed amongst the grassroots activists, in conjunction with the women active around the campaign. Green parliamentarians should then be accountable to this policy regardless of their personal views on the question.
If the green movement is going to achieve its aims, there are going to have to be fundamental changes to the way many things operate, including politics. Making parliamentarians independent of the views of the ranks is a self-defeating way to begin.