I joined the Greens in late 2000, just before the 2001 Federal election, and in no time I surprisingly had become their spokesperson and delegate for national and state councils. I was also in charge of committees to draw policies.
I soon discovered the reason behind my super quick advancement in the party.
The Greens party was and still is at present day, the most racist party in Australia when it comes to internal multiculturalism. This is the reason why my career advanced so quickly, the Greens wanted to “use my face and name” so that they would be seen multicultural and at the same time cover their racist culture.
After years inside the Greens, I came to understand that all their official talk about progressiveness and commitments were just mere talks only to achieve one goal: power grab only.
The reason I joined the Greens was to achieve socio-economic structural changes to our society. I joined because I believed their slogans of “clean politics” and “alternative voice” which Greens held high at all their rallies, meetings and forums. Sadly, within a few years, I discovered the true nature of this party.
Many other genuine progressive activists who joined the Greens for the same reason I did, soon came to the same conclusion:
The party was saying something and practicing the opposite.
The party that was calling for the abolishment of mandatory detention system, has in reality no commitment towards the suffering of refugees. Up until 2004, ALL Greens politicians admitted to me they never met any asylum seeker who had come by boat. They never visited detention centres. Basically the Greens were commenting on high-profile matters without even having a clear understanding of the issue. All they knew was that by commenting on such matters they would get more media coverage and gain more votes.
During rallies and elections forums they voiced their opposition to Israeli occupation of Palestine. Yet up until 2005 they did not have an official policy on the matter. I was actually shocked when Senator Kerry Nettle admitted to me after her win in 2001 that she never heard about Palestine and knew nothing about the issue. She asked me to provide her with literature about the conflict to educate her and her staff about it.
On school funding the Greens official policy is to fund only public schools, however they quickly came to the defence and rather loudly demanded that the government continue the funding of a private Islamic extremist school. At the end of the day the Greens basically endorsed wasting our public money on private schools.
The Greens never had a policy on Multiculturalism prior to me working with them. After much pressure from my side the policy was adopted around 2005. But the Greens hierarchy refused to honour this policy and did not implement any item on its agenda. Until now, the non-English speaking representation in key positions is close to Nil.
My time with the Greens was very disappointing and disheartening by the end. It was actually a bit of a shock to discover that while the official talk was to work in achieving socio-economic changes, the reality instead was “how to win more votes”. There was at no time any real evaluation of what was or could have been achieved.
The Greens repeated attempts to make deals with the right-wing Liberal party controlled by neo-liberal elements was the final straw for me and in 2006 I resigned.
So much for all the talk on “clean politics” and being a progressive party!
Here we have a party that embraces and encourages democracy whilst at the same time makes deals with a right-wing government in order to suffocate that same democracy by changing the senate voting system.
The Greens are also negotiating intensively with the conservative Liberal party to swap preference. This will enable the current government to stay in power for another term and allow the same conservative agenda of attacking our Medicare, tertiary education, Welfare system and humanitarian intake.
“Actions speak louder than words” is the perfect quote for the Greens party.
The Greens have made a lot of noise on “clean politics”, “socio-economic changes”, “refugees rights”, “public money for public services” and “progressive politics”.
But in reality, the actions and achievements are completely the opposite.
In order to stay in power, they would rather see Tony Abbott as PM.
They also wish to see a continuation of “boat people” suffering, more cuts to our public education and health. All this for one reason: the Greens survive on the failures of others.
The Greens have never achieved any progressive change in our society even after years of been part of the government.
The Greens Don Quixotic approach wants to hide their failure in achieving any real progressive change by hiding behind more rhetoric. The attack on Anthony Albanese is a clear example. The Greens want to silence and get rid of one of the most progressive Labor politicians.
The Greens party is a power thirsty party with no commitment to any noble goal. This is why after 40 years in political life; they achieved very little. And this is why I left the Greens.
I cannot endorse voting for Labor, on moral grounds. But definitely, I want to see that Albanese stays in parliament fighting for socio-economic changes that his Greens opponents never fought for.
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