Tas Greens threaten no-confidence
Green Independent members of the Tasmanian parliament reaffirmed on August 1 that they will move a no-confidence motion, which would bring down the Field Labor government, if it tables resource security legislation in parliament.
Member for Denison Bob Brown said the Greens were "rock solid" in their commitment to a no-confidence motion if the Forest Resource Security Legislation included 1.1 million hectares of forest in a wood production zone and imposed a Legislative Council veto over future attempts to remove land from that zone.
At the recent special premiers' conference in Sydney, Premier Michael Field argued successfully that previous work by the state's Forests and Forestry Industry Council and the year-long Salamanca Talks should be counted as part of the environmental assessment process required by federal resource security legislation.
In another concession to Field, the federal government agreed to allow the $100 million investment trigger for resource security to include not just single large-scale projects but a mixture of smaller ones, including, for example, upgrading present plants and additions to sawmill and woodchip plants.
Greenland resigns
Hall Greenland has resigned from the Sydney Greens. He was one of the founders of the group in 1984, and has been one of the five "conveners" of attempts to call a national meeting on formation of a green party.
In a letter sent to some members of the Sydney Greens, he complained of the group's rejection of attempts to proscribe the Democratic Socialist Party and said discussions on this and other matters had become unbearably tense.
The resignation follows Greenland's announcement to a recent Sydney Greens meeting that he would stand on an Open Council ticket for the inner-Sydney Leichhardt Council elections. The Greens had already decided to run their own ticket and rejected moves by Greenland to have the decision reconsidered.
Members say Greenland had not previously informed the group that he was considering standing on another ticket and had always given the impression that he would be part of a Greens ticket.
The core of the Open Council ticket are left-wing associates of Greenland from before 1984, when he and others in the Labor Greens group were expelled from the ALP. It is likely there will now
be at least three green/progressive tickets in Leichhardt: the Greens, Open Council and Community Independents.