By Jon Land
The defection of Cheryl Kernot has posed the role of the "alternative" to Labor and the Coalition much more sharply for the Democrats and the Australian Greens.
Greens leader Senator Bob Brown stated the day after Kernot left the Democrats, "Cheryl Kernot's defection to big party politics has cleared the air and brings a new spring day for the Greens as the face of alternative politics in Australia".
Labor is using Kernot to attempt to sell itself as a viable alternative to the Coalition government. "Cheryl Kernot will move them more to the centre, or back towards the centre, and no doubt will have a remarkably good effect in putting on a 'greener' face", Brown told Green Left Weekly.
"There may not be much substance to it, but in terms of her ability to appear credible on issues of the environment and social justice, she'll be a great asset for them."
But Brown believes that Kernot could have done "much more in the balance of power in the Senate, as the leader of the third major grouping in parliament, than she will be able to do in the Labor Party".
Shortly after Kernot's defection, Labor announced it was preparing to reverse its position on East Timor and support the right to self-determination. Brown believes that this is "again, more in presentation than in substance.
"I have a motion on East Timor before the Senate at present, which is calling for an act of self-determination and for inquiries both in Australia and Indonesia into the killing of six journalists in 1975, but Labor is going to vote against that motion. This is the Cheryl Kernot Labor." Brown said that the issue of self-determination was the main reason Labor would not support the motion.
Relations between Brown and Kernot had been shaky for several years, and resentment between the two deepened following the 1996 federal election campaign. What the Greens saw as Kernot's attempts to marginalise the Greens were a block to a united approach on a range of issues, and precluded any idea of a merger between the two parties. Has her defection made a difference?
"The discussion of mergers is simply not on the agenda, but the defection will inevitably lead to a more cordial relationship between the Greens and the Democrats", Brown said.
"I've already had a brief yarn to Meg Lees. Cheryl Kernot had the Greens in Coventry. With that brick wall gone, the brick wall that she built between the Greens and the Democrats, things must improve."
The priority for the Greens now is to define themselves more clearly as the party with progressive policies in parliament.
"It's a matter of commitment to those policies and integrity. What Cheryl Kernot exemplified was that if you're not particularly committed, if you don't have integrity when it comes to the advocacy of policy, then you'll move much further ahead in politics. Now that is a pretty sobering lesson", said Brown. "I don't intend to follow the same path, nor do other Greens I've spoken to.
"We live in a world where presentation and veneer are apparently more important than substance and commitment. Nevertheless, the Greens have substance, have commitment — we have a vision which is to do with an extremely heartfelt concern for the way in which human society is not functioning and is not sustainable."
Brown sees the Greens continuing to play a role in countering the direction of the big parties and their economic rationalist policies. "The Greens believe in a complete restructuring of work, so that work is available to those who want it, and we get away from the current situation where fewer people have more work, and more people have less work. That is part of the growing gap between rich and poor in this country."
On the proposal for a goods and services tax, Brown said that the Greens "would like to see taxation that has a social and environmental imperative built into it — the GST in and of itself doesn't do that. We all know that at whatever level a GST starts, it will be racked up quite quickly and has the danger of impacting much more on the poor than it does the rich.
"We need to look at a range of options, such as the carbon tax, which I know the Democrats have dropped off the list of options in the reduction of greenhouse gases in Australia."