Green politics in 'grey times'
By Ben Reid
MELBOURNE — About 150 people attended the 11th Eco-Politics conference held at the University of Melbourne on October 4 and 5. Scholars and activists presented a range of papers and workshops on the conference theme of "Green Politics in Grey Times".
The theme referred to the view that environmental issues have been marginalised by the election of the Howard government, and by growing public concern about economic issues such as recession and unemployment.
Most presentations asserted that the Coalition's attitude to the environment is the antithesis of the previous ALP government. However, opinions were divided on the ALP's commitment to green issues, with some activists arguing that it only sought to co-opt environmentalists.
In the keynote Phil Tighe memorial address, Adelaide academic Tim Doyle explained that the Howard government's intensified application of "free market" ideology, introduced first by the ALP, is reflected in increased attacks on the environment. While conservative conservation councils have largely been compliant, critics, such as Friends of the Earth, have had their funding eliminated, he said.
Doyle charted how lobbying-based environment organisations had been co-opted by the previous Labor government and called for a "politics of resilience" to deal with the present government's attacks. He pointed to the Kumarangk Coalition against the Hindmarsh Island bridge and the community-based inquiry into uranium mining at Jabiluka as examples.
The Eco-Politics conference followed the "Environmental Justice: Global Ethics for the 21st Century" conference at the University of Melbourne on October 1-3 which was attended by around 500 academics from Australia and overseas.