Murri leader launches Qld. Socialist Alliance campaign in South Brisbane

February 26, 2012
Issue 
Liam Flenady speaking at the launch of his campaign for South Brisbane in West End, February 25. Photo: Jim McIlroy

On February 25, prominent Murri community leader Sam Watson launched the campaign for Liam Flenady, the Socialist Alliance candidate for South Brisbane in the March 24 Queensland elections.

A crowd of more than 40 people attended a street meeting in Boundary Street, West End in the heart of the inner-city electorate held by Labor Premier Anna Bligh.

Watson, who is also the Socialist Alliance spokesperson for Aboriginal affairs, said: “Having been involved in Socialist Alliance for a number of years now, I get excited when we get the opportunity to put our policies out before the people at election time.

“The major parties have failed the Australian people. They do not care about the real issues of environment and social justice, which affect the ordinary citizens out there.

“Australian voters need to use elections as a means of asserting our rights. We should not compromise our principles, as the mainstream parties, ALP and LNP, constantly do.

“Socialist Alliance has a very strong platform for radical change in society. I totally endorse Liam as the SA candidate for South Brisbane.

“Let’s support a campaign which stands for real change, not just more of the same.”

Flenady said he was “honoured” to have Watson endorse his campaign.

“I feel sorry for those who watch or listen to the mainstream media at the moment, with all the farce about the federal Labor leadership dominating the scene.

“Anna Bligh’s rhetoric about ‘mines to minds’, supposedly using mining tax revenue to assist education, is no more than a token gesture. A Liberal National Party (LNP) government led by Campbell Newman would be even worse than Labor.

“At the end of the day, both the LNP and the ALP are capitalist parties, dominated by big business. On the other hand, the Socialist Alliance is directly committed to the interests of the people.

“The time has come for us all to rethink our future. We need to get together and really decide how society should work for the benefit of the great majority, not a tiny rich elite.”

The final speaker was Hannah Reardon-Smith, a Socialist Alliance member active in the Stop CSG Brisbane campaign group. Reardon-Smith emphasised the drastic effects coal seam gas (CSG) is having on the environment and people.

She stressed the pledge by the Socialist Alliance to stop CSG and campaign for an energy future based on renewables and green jobs.


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