What to make of the NSW Greens preselection result, which delivered a 60鈥40 win for Mehreen Faruqi against Lee Rhiannon?
Lee Rhiannon
鈥淩ichard Di Natale, I am a member of Left Renewal and I hope you can hear this because the Greens are my party too,鈥 a woman said to great applause at a meeting of (LR) on January 25.
More than 100 people, including from Newcastle and Wollongong, came to the first public meeting of LR, an anti-capitalist grouping within The Greens, to hear about its aims and objectives.
So now former Greens parliamentary leader Christine Milne has come out of political retirement to invite 鈥 via the pages of 鈥 the young lefties in the Greens NSW who have formed "Left Renewal" to leave the building and establish their own party.
Left-wing Greens have been sidelined in a re-allocation of the party鈥檚 portfolios announced on September 15. Critics say the moves are part of new leader Richard di Natale鈥檚 expressed desire to make the party more 鈥渕ainstream鈥. It appears that , and became public on the party's website on September 15 when was sent to the corporate media.
News Limited鈥檚 flagship newspaper, The Australian, said in a September 2010 that it wanted the Greens to be 鈥渄estroyed鈥. The paper鈥檚 latest attacks on Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, which include allegations she held secret meetings with a high-level KGB spy 40 years ago, confirm that its editorial bias hasn鈥檛 budged an inch.
The second suicide in little more than two months took place at Villawood detention centre on the night of November 15.
Ahmad Al Akabi, 41, was found by fellow detainees hanged in a bathroom.
After spending more than a year in the Christmas Island and Villawood detention centres, his asylum application had been rejected twice under the off-shore processing system that was found to be invalid in a recent High Court decision.
鈥淏usinesses like making profits鈥, said Labor leader Julia Gillard on ABC鈥檚 Q&A on August 9. She was explaining why Labor opposed the Coalition鈥檚 proposal to raise the company tax rate by 1.5%. 鈥淚f they鈥檝e got to pay more tax and that鈥檚 going to cut into their profits, then they鈥檒l think of a way of adding a bit more profit.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 the best way of adding a bit more profit in? They put up prices.
鈥淚t, you know, just stands to common sense reason, doesn鈥檛 it?鈥
The Greens lead NSW senate candidate Lee Rhiannon agrees.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard鈥檚 catch phrase for this election is "sustainable". No longer, according to Gillard, should we look to a big Australia, but a "sustainable" population.
In a speech in western Sydney on July 21, Gillard emphasised the squeeze on health services, transport, roads and infrastructure. She hinted her "sustainable population" mantra would ease the squeeze.
Apart from rhetoric largely designed to pander to irrational fears of immigrants and prejudices against asylum seekers, Labor has failed to explain what it means by "sustainable".
Outstanding service
Fairfax columnist Gerald Henderson quotes Australian Workers鈥 Union leader Paul Howes concerning the family background of Greens Senate candidate Lee Rhiannon in the July 27 Sydney Morning Herald. I knew her parents, Bill and Freda Brown, since 1944, and I was privileged to be Bill鈥檚 campaign director when he stood for the federal parliament on several occasions.