Christabel Chamarette
Do you think alternative parties will ever break the stranglehold of the two major parties?
The Greens WA are extremely hopeful, because we've just got our first state member of the upper house. However, in the lower house, until our voting system is reformed, I think a breakthrough is a little bit more distant.
I think there is hope of winning Green representation [in the lower house] at some time in the future. But I certainly don't expect it in this federal election. Bob Brown is making a very bold statement about what he believes, which is that we should enter the House of Representatives as well so as to be able to have an increased impact on government.
What else needs to happen if alternative parties are to make more of an impact than just to hold the balance of power in some parliaments?
The way in which the media reflects the political process needs to alter dramatically, because at present it is really pandering to the two-party concept in a way that the community is no longer either supportive of or in touch with. The community is utterly disillusioned and cynical about the two-party system. I believe that the adversarial politics is dead and crumbling and needs to be replaced by multiparty politics.
How are the WA Greens finding the federal election campaign so far?
The WA Greens have crossed the credibility and visibility barrier with the media simply because of the increased vote that was apparent from the state election. We've become the third best supported party in WA and we have every hope that Dee Margetts will get elected as the second Green senator.
In some seats there are a number of alternative, progressive parties and independents standing against each other. Does this harm the alternative vote and the parties themselves?
In the situation where the two major parties are so stultified, the range of issues that minor parties represent are actually giving a truer picture of democracy. While it could be argued on a pragmatic level that it might be "splitting the vote", I think it's allowing people to have some choice, although in a final "results" sense they don't have a choice.
Have you noticed any increase in activist support in recent times?
I've noticed a shift in the voluntary movement, partly because the major parties are so marginalised in their focus on economic theory and on economic rationalism. Activists are recognising that the minor voice in the political arena that the major parties are ignoring.
We're telling people that to vote Green is to send a signal, to either Liberal or Labor, that they've got to change.
Do you think an alliance of minor parties, such as the NZ Alliance, could ever happen in Australia?
I like the idea of local autonomy and of a diversity of groups working together on certain issues on a consensus basis. I'm prepared to work with any group on particular issues. I think the idea of a coalition is good, as long as you don't sever your autonomy or your identity but you have increased power by working together with a different group to support a particular agenda. So I'm in favour of the coalition/alliance/network type process within the political arena.
Although the WA Greens are not a branch of the National Green Party, we are cooperating with them, totally, in the Australia-wide campaign.
John Coulter was quoted in the Courier Mail last week as saying there is still the possibility of a merger between the Greens and the Democrats. What is the position of the WA Greens?
I've been quoted in today's West Australian as saying a merger is not likely. I was quoted in answer to a question as to whether the Democrats and Greens were likely to merge, and I said "No, not in the near future". The heading was "Greens Reject Merger". There's nothing to reject because in all the time I've been in federal parliament nobody from the Democrats has ever discussed with me the possibility of a merger between the Greens and the Democrats and nobody has raised the matter with the Greens (WA) in the last 18 months.
Nobody has made any statements about merger except John Coulter, as far as I know.
I'm not opposed to dialogue on it, just like I'm not opposed to dialogue with any group that wants us to work together in some way.
Could you make any prediction about how the membership of the WA Greens might feel about a merger with the Democrats?
I think our membership would be a little bit upset if it started very soon because of the way in which the Democrats distributed their preferences to Liberals ahead of the independents and Greens in four of the six upper house regions in the state elections.
I think they would have to be more conciliatory and clearer about where their allegiance lies if they wanted to talk about merging.