By Pat Brewer
SYDNEY — A split among NSW Greens has occurred with the application by two former secretaries of the Green Alliance's State Registration Committee, Dave Nerlich and Paul Fitzgerald, to change the registered officer of the NSW Greens Party.
Nerlich and Fitzgerald lodged their application with the NSW Electoral Commission despite Registration Committee regulations which require a 75% majority in order to revoke the position of registered officer.
Their action follows a year of debate about who controls access to the state-registered Greens Party name and how to apply guidelines for administration.
The central issues in dispute have been:
- whether the name would be administered openly, as it was originally, or whether some form of proscription would operate;
- whether the body responsible for administration of the name would be delegated or open to the membership as a whole;
- the nature of a delegated body — can it take decisions or only consult with its constituencies.
An attempt to resolve these issues by compromise regulations had been adopted at a conference of the Green Alliance on February 1. These would have passed control from the alliance to the committee subject to agreement on operating rules which guaranteed an open and democratic process for access to the name.
At the February 1 conference, the motion was agreed without dissent. (The Alliance allows anyone in attendance, not only members, to dissent. If dissent occurs, the matter is taken to a membership vote if consensus cannot be reached through further discussion.)
The transfer of responsibility was subject to adoption of these rules by the Registration Committee and the transfer of some financial responsibilities. This was voted for 16 to 2. Since those present at the Registration Committee meeting the next day, with the exception of one delegate, were also present at the conference, it was thought that the matter could finally be resolved.
Instead, the motion to adopt these rules, moved by Doug Hine, lapsed without being put. A motion to deny any relationship to the alliance failed to win a 75% vote. There was no decision on the rules. The main focus of discussion was how much proscription was to be imposed, even though a motion to insert this into the rules had been lost at the alliance conference the previous day.
There was an attempt to change the registered officer, who had been elected at the previous meeting to hold the position for one year, because he wouldn't vote according to the wishes of the proscription
The meeting broke up acrimoniously. At a private meeting in the pub later, a future date was set by a select few for a committee meeting to be held in Lismore in late March. There was no ring-around of delegates to the committee to see if this was agreeable or convenient (this was to be the first committee meeting held outside Sydney).
A further Green Alliance conference was held on March 1 in Sydney. All members and Green groups/parties in NSW were informed of this meeting in a February 10 mail-out which included the minutes of the February 1 conference. The proposed agenda included 3 items:
1. Changes to the federal electoral legislation which had ramifications for the way Green parties had been established around the country.
2. The outcome of the February 1 conference and how to assess this.
3. Financial statements, which had been demanded on threat of legal action by Alan Oshlack at the February 1 conference.
Nineteen people turned up, all long-term activists in the alliance and including members from seven local Green parties, with apologies from two others.
A proposal by Pat Brewer was moved in response to the cynical disregard by the Registration Committee of the compromise proposal adopted by the February 1 conference. Since the conditions attached to the transfer of authority had been violated, this offer was revoked. Further, since the Registrations Committee disputed its relation to the alliance, it should be collapsed, with the administration of the state-registered Greens Party coming back to the Green Alliance. And since the committee had been terminated under the rules of the alliance, another set of rules for administration of the name should be passed. These motions were adopted.
The Registrations Committee was established in August 1990 at a Green Alliance conference in Morpeth, when membership of the alliance was clarified. Until that time, membership was open, consisting of groups, individuals and other parties. The conference decided to have membership on an individual basis, with existing parties/groups affiliating to the alliance information clearing house. This included a variety of membership fees and concessions for affiliated groups.
It was not anticipated that some groups would not affiliate to the clearing house. When this happened, it raised problems about administration of the state registration. For example, could non-members of the alliance hold elected positions for the state Green registration? What rights did non-affiliated groups have? Did running in the lower house automatically mean supporting the upper house Green ticket?
The rules adopted on March 1 are essentially the same as those that have operated to date but try as well to answer such questions in a way that guarantees automatic access to affiliated groups.
Fitzgerald did not attend the conference. Nerlich, who did, was urged to stand for re-election as secretary, but refused even to renew his membership of the alliance.