LOUISE CROSSLEY is the Greens' lead Senate candidate in Tasmania. Crossley is tipped as the Green most likely to enter the Senate. She spoke to Green Left Weekly's TONY ILTIS.
While in other states Green preferences are directed to Labor ahead of the Coalition, in Tasmania the Greens' preferences will be split. Crossley said this is because, in terms of environmental polices, "there is nothing to choose between Labor and Liberal. The Labor Party has ... endorsed the regional forest agreements. That's the major issue for the environment in Tasmania."
According to Crossley, the only environmental issue on which Labor may prove better than the Coalition is halting the Jabiluka uranium mine. "But, so far in the campaign, Labor has been hedging on that. It's not an issue of principle for them, but how much compensation the government would have to pay. It's also an issue of how many votes Labor thinks it can win.
"That's not an adequate basis on which to 'save' one of the most superb World Heritage areas in Australia and the Northern Territory's Aboriginal and natural heritage values.
"Labor is under a great deal of pressure from the big end of town. The Hawke and Keating governments wooed the big end of town, which makes them virtually indistinguishable from the Liberal Party."
Crossley criticised the Australian Democrats' decision to support a version of Howard's GST. "That makes a pretty clear choice for voters between the Greens and the Democrats. The Greens are totally opposed to the GST.
"The Democrats seem to be trying to fit themselves into that wafer-thin gap between the two major parties. They are saying: 'We support a GST, but a foodless one'. That's an empty promise because there's no guarantee that a future government won't include food or raise the rate."
Despite this criticism, the Greens in Tasmania are preferencing the Democrats in the Senate. "There are a lot of issues we agree with the Democrats on", Crossley said. "They have a good position on the environment. They have a good position on Aboriginal issues, on Wik and on racism.
"On the other hand, they voted for Peter Reith's Workplace Relations Act and were part of the attempt to raise nursing home fees. We didn't know [their position on the GST] when we gave them our preferences."
After the Democrats, the Greens in Tasmania preference the Democratic Socialists. "In general, we support smaller parties ahead of larger parties, unless they are right-wing, like Call to Australia [now the Christian Democratic Party], Harradine's group and One Nation."
"The Democratic Socialists have mounted a whole range of actions — we've shared in some these — rallying young people against racism. That is tremendously important because we have to look to the future and look to who are going to be our citizens and leaders in the future.
"Young people are naturally egalitarian, as a general rule, and anti-racist. To give them the experience of direct action on those sorts of issues is a really valuable political initiation.
"We know that left politics is most vibrant when there's a strong student support for it. So, the work of the Democratic Socialists has been extremely valuable."
Crossley said that an important issue for the Greens will the defence of proportional representation in Senate.
The Greens fear the major parties will attempt to make it more difficult for small parties to be elected to the Senate. They are urging voters to elect as many progressive minor parties to the Senate as possible to prevent such a move.