Gemma Pinnell is the Australian Greens candidate for the traditionally Labor-held seat of Melbourne. In the 2002 Victorian state election, Pinnell gained the highest Greens vote across the state when she polled 28% in the seat of Richmond. She spoke with Green left Weekly's Graham Matthews.
"I had a background in student politics, right back to my high school days", Pinnell said. "I have been involved in a range of social justice campaigns around young people's rights and then, at university, involved in education campaigns and women's issues." In 1997 Pinnell was the National Union of Students' women's officer.
Pinnell joined the Greens in 1998. "After I finished my time in student politics, I wanted to remain active, and for me that meant getting involved with the Greens, a political party that sat well with my own political outlook and framework."
Pinnell works for the National Tertiary Education Union, and has been a workplace delegate for the NTEU at RMIT.
The Greens are optimistic about their chances of winning the seat of Melbourne from Labor's Lindsay Tanner. Pinnell explained: "We're looking to have a Labor/Greens marginal race. So in the state election we preferenced the ALP, but we were never intending to have our preferences go anywhere. And that's what we are aiming to have happen in this seat. That can only happen if all other parties running preference us — minor parties and the Liberals. Our favoured position is to get the highest primary vote we can to make that a reality. That would be a vote in the range of 30%, which should be achievable, given that in the state election I achieved 28%."
Pinnell declined to comment on where the Greens will deliver their preferences, saying only that "at this stage we say to people that if they want to get rid of the polices of the Howard government then vote Green because we are the party that genuinely stands for a different set and range of issues. The Greens are about an alternative to what we currently have in the parliament. We see the issues of the bombing of Iraq and the fate of refugees as important issues. We don't think that either major party has moved far enough on those issues at the moment and that's part of us assessing how we make preferences."
Pinnell remained unfazed by the Coalition and business lobby's scare campaign against the Greens' progressive agenda, claiming it "shows that the Greens are being taken seriously as a political party in this election". According to Pinnell, "scrutiny and interest in Greens political positions" has increased since the federal election was called, and at the same time support for the Greens has increased. She believes the scare campaign has simply "focused more and more attention on the Greens".
Pinnell was dismissive of concerns raised in the corporate press over the prospect of the Greens holding the balance of power in a hung parliament. She expressed disappointment at what she claims are attempts to portray the Greens as "destabilising". According to Pinnell: "Conditions for balance of power relations are not the focus of our campaign at the moment. The focus of our campaign is about policies that we feel are important." She added that the Labor and Liberal parties have concentrated on this issue to make the Greens seem "unsafe".
Arguing that the Greens holding the balance of power is not "something people should be afraid of", Pinnell cited the example of New Zealand's parliament where the Greens have significant representation. "Positive change is happening because of the Greens' role in parliament there", she said.
Pinnell was forceful in her explanation of the Greens' support for industry-wide bargaining agreements, in contrast to the Labor Party's support for a continuation of enterprise bargaining. "The question of industry-wide bargaining is quite an important one, because we know that where agreements have to be negotiated site by site, this is a resource-expensive process for both unions and employers and we believe that you should be able to go from one employer to another and retain the same pay and conditions", Pinnell said. "At the moment this is based on the strength of the individual workplace to make that happen."
The Greens also affirm the right of unions to take solidarity action. Pinnell confirmed the Greens' support for the repeal of sections 45 D and E in the Trade Practices Act, provisions which make union solidarity actions illegal. Yet while she argued that the Greens supported unions' right to hold solidarity actions, she argued the Greens' position was to empower the Industrial Relations Commission to "regulate" any such actions, with the power to penalise unions who do not comply.
"Where we differ from the ALP is on the question of democracy in the workplace and the role of women", Pinnell argued. "We support the right to strike as well. A lot more unionists are turning towards the Greens", she said.
However on the issue of support for former union secretary Craig Johnston, jailed as a result of charges arising from an industrial dispute, Pinnell had little to say. "The Greens formally don't have a position on [Johnston's jailing], and so I don't have a position on it on the record, and that's all the comment that I want to make on it", she concluded.
From Green Left Weekly, September 22, 2004.
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