One of the more acute observations made of the 2010 Federal election was by Lindsay Tanner, who suggested that a key reason for the Greens’ success was that, in contrast to the major parties, the Greens insisted on treating voters as adults.
Not so the Herald Sun — take this line from today’s editorial entitled ‘Greens world has dark side’:
‘The new fairies at the bottom of the garden, while fantasising of a world ruled by a benevolent global parliament, have turned into vengeful goblins.’
As Bernard Keane notes today, the Greens taking the balance of power in the Senate accurately reflects the Greens’ vote in that House, in contrast, for example, to Steve Fielding, who secured a spot courtesy of Labor’s failed electoral machinations rather than the support of Victorian electors.
The Green “threat to democracy” the Herald Sun warned about in its bedtime story editorial related to Brown’s commitment that, if a carbon pricing scheme was introduced before the next election, the Greens wouldn’t be voting for its repeal afterward.
Far from being anti-democratic, Brown’s commitment reflects the fact that, in blocking any attempt to remove a carbon pricing scheme (in favour, presumably, of the Liberals’ ludicrously expensive and ineffectual ‘direct action’ plan), he would be doing exactly what every single Greens voter wanted.
Perhaps conservative commentators, frothing at the mouth about the Greens, might complain about a “mandate” for the repeal of a carbon pricing scheme. The problem is selectivity. The consternation-in-advance about the Greens not cooperating with Tony Abbott is in dire contrast to the silence — indeed, cheering — that emanated from conservative quarters when first the Liberals, and then Labor, explicitly reneged on their 2007 election commitments to implement an emissions trading scheme.
As Tony Abbott likes to point out, there’s only one MP in the House of Representatives who was elected promising a carbon price, and that’s the Greens’ Adam Bandt. Exactly the same logic would apply after the next election. Then again, News Ltd struggles a bit for logic in its war on the Greens.
Maybe you’re being a bit harsh on the Herald Sun King (in tune with the rest of Limited News)? In their favour, this campaign should be viewed in context.
This sort of “world will end with Green domination” – as opposed to the magnanimous, benevolence, goodness and niceness distributed by the unelected likes of “Murdoch”, telling us “how government should be conducted” (for the good of the best placed), with their political influence. And if “a certain party” does not comply – don’t worry about silly elections – “Watch This Space (for all the pestilence and negative publicity, a voter can imagine, before heading to a booth)”!
And, remember, these “Greens” have only been elected by “one in eight” of us – and only one got a seat in the House of Reps?
It simply comes down to “Good Unelected Murdoch Government vs. Elected” – what could be simpler?
Hun summary: representative democracy, you’re doing it wrong.
For the life of me I cannot see how any argument can be sustained along the lines that the “Greens are a threat to democracy”. There have been many occaions when Liberals or Labour have exercised control over decision-making out of proportion to the number of votes they got. IN a representative democracy this is always possible. Provided the electorate always has a chance at some point to vote then what happens is just that – a result of democracy. I am more scared when Labor and Liberal are in a position to twist things out of public alignment. When a few days ago there was discussion in Crikey about support for political parties it should have been a requirement that they treat the elctorate like adults or forfeit their right to register as a party. As for logical argument, the two major parties are incapable of sustaining an agument worth listening to the end.
‘The Green “threat to democracy”…’
Whaaaat? I breathlessly await the next logical step when the Murd0ch minions caution us that elections themselves are destabilising to democracy.
In fact it’s all our fault: Tony Abbott can’t trust the Australian electorate to get democracy right.
My Bazza Mackenziewog’s head fell off he feels so threatened by the Greens.