Lisa Macdonald, Sydney
Both Labor and Liberal are going into the September 17 NSW by-elections in Maroubra, Macquarie Fields and Marrickville with the lowest public credibility for many years.
In Marrickville, the Liberals are not even standing, and the Greens need a swing of just over 10% to take the seat, formerly held by Andrew Refshauge, who retired last month after 22 years as the local MP. Carmel Tebbutt, the NSW education minister, has taken leave from her upper house position to contest the seat for the ALP. She has been promised her upper house seat back by Premier Morris Iemma if she does not win Marrickville.
The Greens candidate, Sam Byrne, has been a Marrickville councillor for six years and is now the deputy mayor. He believes the party has its best chance yet of winning the seat.
"The tide is slowly turning", he told Green Left Weekly. In the 2004 Marrickville Council elections, the Greens won five seats to Labor's four. In the current campaign, he said, "I have been doorknocking every day and I have never had such a positive response".
The Greens' campaign is focusing on restoring and extending public transport, health and education. "If I had to sum up the main difference between the ALP and the Greens, it is that NSW Labor is not committed to basic public services", Byrne said.
"NSW Labor is a government of roadways, not public transport", he said. "There has been a fundamental failure of the rail system, a result of neglect by the government and cuts to necessary spending on infrastructure. Then there is the demoralisation of state rail employees because of the government's attacks on them."
This is felt strongly in Marrickville, a result of Labor taking the seat for granted, according to Byrne. "None of the 10 railway stations in the electorate have disabled access, yet stations in adjoining electorates do." He argues that a strong vote for the Greens is important because "the closer the vote the less complacent Labor will be about the residents of Marrickville".
The Socialist Alliance candidate for Marrickville, Pip Hinman, told Green Left Weekly, "Everybody knows the environment cannot afford to stay on the ever-more-trucks-and-cars, more-freeways, more-petrol-guzzling path. Yet even the NSW transport minister, John Watkins, has conceded that Sydney commuters are making 111,000 fewer rail trips every week because of the poorer train service. At the same time, road traffic on NSW tollways has gone up 4%."
The Socialist Alliance argues for a radical solution, and is using the by-election campaign to challenge the state government to conduct a public inquiry into the real costs and benefits of massively extending public transport and making it free of charge, or close to free.
Public education and health care are also key issues for both the Greens and the Socialist Alliance. "It has just been revealed that the government is slashing classes for students with special needs", Byrne said. "And teachers of English as a second language are dealing with twice as many students now as they had 12 years ago because funding in NSW has been static for that long." As well, NSW has the lowest spending on mental health care of any state or territory, he said, and "creeping privatisation" is destroying the whole public health system.
Both the Greens and the Socialist Alliance are campaigning against the ALP's proposed desalination plant in Kurnell and against another coal-fired power plant. In the local area, cleaning up the Cooks River is a priority, said Byrne, something that will be helped by the Greens' campaign for a deposit on all plastic and glass bottles will help.
Hinman argues that politics in Australia is at a critical turning point. "After two decades of corporate profits-first 'reforms' by Liberal and Labor governments alike, the rich and powerful have become even more rich and powerful, while the majority of families, and the community as a whole, are suffering more. Now the Howard government is planning a radical structural shift in the balance of power in favour of the richest and most powerful through new workplace relations laws."
According to Hinman, if the laws are successful in smashing the union movement, "all progressive campaigns and movements in Australia will be weakened. Strong militant unions have won a lot of the social gains in this country — not just better wages and working conditions, but also victories for the environment, democratic rights and better living conditions for many oppressed groups in society."
The Socialist Alliance's top priority in the Marrickville campaign is to make the case for total non-cooperation by the NSW government with the draconian federal anti-union laws. "Howard may get his laws through parliament, but if the union movement resists their implementation and the ALP state governments refuse to cooperate, refuse to use their police to enforce the laws, then the laws will be a dead duck."
The Socialist Alliance is collecting signatures on an open letter to the NSW premier calling on his government to reject individual contracts for the state's public sector workers, guarantee unfair dismissal protection for all workers in NSW and refuse police enforcement of Howard's anti-union laws. Byrne has signed the open letter.
Byrne and Hinman agree that sexuality rights is an important issue, and the NSW Greens are putting a private member's bill to parliament for same-sex marriage rights. They are also pushing for amendments to the laws allowing religious institutions and small businesses to refuse to employ someone on the grounds of their sexuality.
The Socialist Alliance supports these measures, and also calls on the state government to enact a three-tiered relationship recognition: same-sex de facto, civil union and marriage rights.
Hinman described the need to campaign in defence of all democratic rights as urgent. "Civil rights are now under serious attack under the cover of 'anti-terrorism' laws, and the NSW Labor government has been leading the charge", she said. "We have a right to privacy, to freedom from intimidation and harassment, and to freedom of assembly and religious and political belief, but it's clearer every day that we're going to have to fight to keep those rights."
Asked what he would do if he won the seat, Byrne said: "I'd be one of 93! But what the Greens have done nationally is to push government in a progressive direction. Invariably the government immediately says no to our proposals, but we keep working and often six months later they quietly do what we had proposed in the first place."
Byrne added, "The most important thing I could do as an MP is stay engaged with the community and bring the community into the parliament ... But whether or not we win, the effect of a strong vote for the Greens is to send a strong message to the government that it has to listen to the issues we are raising."
Hinman explained the Socialist Alliance's view of the election result: "Our politics are anti-capitalist; we can't imagine capitalism with a green or social justice face. But the alliance is directing its second preference to the Greens because the Greens have the best chance of breaking the ALP's hold over this seat. Our votes will help them in this by-election."
To get involved in the Socialist Alliance campaign, phone Alison on (02) 9690 1977 or email < marrickville@socialist-A HREF="mailto:alliance.org"><alliance.org>. To help the Greens' campaign, phone Kristian on 0411 638 320 or email <kbolwell@gmail.com>.
From Green Left Weekly, September 14, 2005.
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