Tony Iltis, Melbourne
While "Is the left going green?" was the topic for a forum organised by the New International Bookshop on October 21, the discussion was more focused on whether the Greens were going left.
Two of the panelists were Greens candidates in the October 9 federal elections: Gemma Pinnell, who stood in the seat of Melbourne, and David Risstrom, who would have been elected a senator for Victoria had not the ALP and Democrats preferenced the Family First party.
Risstrom said that the Greens and not the ALP or the Democrats were the left in parliament, although he pointed out that there were other groups on the left outside parliament. While emphasising that there was a rising vote for the Greens, he claimed that the re-election of the Howard government showed that Australians' voting intentions were moving to the right.
Risstrom and other panelists criticised what they claimed was an overemphasis by the socialist left on promoting material affluence, but emphasised the Greens' commitment to social equality.
Responding to a question about the media, Risstrom called for equal funding for political advertising and a strong, independent ABC. He pointed out, however, that with the Coalition parties about to get control of the Senate, media ownership was likely to become even more concentrated in corporate hands. He quipped that now would be a good time to subscribe to Green Left Weekly.
Pinnell described her own background as being more that of a progressive activist than an environmentalist. She also emphasised that "social and economic justice" were a core part of the Greens' charter. She pointed out that running in the elections against Labor "left-winger" Lindsay Tanner, the Green campaign focused on issues such as same-sex marriage, refugee rights and the Iraq war. She said that the Greens had a "strong" industrial relations policy and were the only parliamentary party to have voted against all Howard's attacks on workers' rights.
She said that the way forward was not just about getting people elected to parliament, although responding to a question about strategy, Pinnell pointed to upcoming local and state elections and the fact that, even without the balance of power, the Greens senators would be the opposition voice in parliament.
The other panelists were Robyn Eckersley, senior lecturer in politics at Melbourne University and author of The Green State, and James Norman, journalist and author of Bob Brown: Gentle Revolutionary.
From Green Left Weekly, October 27, 2004.
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