Last week the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian wrote some not so positive pieces on the Greens, which included inaccuracies about the party and my personal and political history.
It was great to receive some positive letters from individuals and community groups I have worked with over the last couple of decades, that were sent to daily newspapers (and many published) as a result.
Here’s a taste:
It is with disappointment that our group reads negative comments about Lee Rhiannon and the Greens in the media. Yes, the Greens block mines – and thank goodness they do. No one from Somersby wanted a sand mine 100 odd metres behind the local primary school except the developers.
If it wasn’t for Lee’s constant raising of our plight within parliament, we are sure the mine would have gone ahead. The fact that it hasn’t is due to the hard work of our community and the championing of our cause by Ms Rhiannon.
This is why we need the Greens. They are the only party who consistently stands up against inappropriate development and a sand mine within close range of primary school and in the middle of our village was inappropriate.
Hillary Morris, Somersby Action Group
In our 12-year fight over the M5 East stack, a particularly egregious piece of RTA and Labor political engineering, Lee Rhiannon and the other Greens in the Legislative Council gave us unstinting support and advocacy (''The watermelon party'', July 31-August 1). As well as taking the time to understand the issues and attend numerous rallies and meetings, Rhiannon was particularly helpful in enabling us to obtain documents and ask probing questions which exposed the poor decision-making and interdepartmental buck-passing surrounding the toxic tunnel.
That support was crucial in helping us achieve the small successes we had. In fact, with the help of the Greens, we were able to have access to something which looked suspiciously like democratic representation, a rare event in NSW politics.
Mark Curran, President, Residents Against Polluting Stacks, Earlwood
If you believed what you read in the paper you would think the Greens candidate for the Senate, Lee Rhiannon, was a self-interested, politically motivated communist. The reality is far different. I have seen Lee work in the farming communities of rural NSW and take on vital issues that the major party politicians refuse to touch.
She is bright, honest, reliable and hard-working. What a shame some others do not take a few leaves out of her book!
Timothy Duddy, Quirindi
Lee Rhiannon is described in ''The Watermelon Party'' as being on the urban side of ''a big fault line that runs between the environmental activists who cut their teeth campaigning against logging on the NSW north and south coasts, and the inner-city strangleholds of Rhiannon and her supporters''.
I am a long-term forest activist who wants to end woodchipping of the south coast forests and stop the latest threat to the forests, burning native forest wood for electricity.
For more than a decade Lee has strongly supported our campaign at all levels available to her.
She has joined blockades in the forest, risked arrest, slept on roadsides with protesters, supported them when they were arrested for civil disobedience and used her position in Parliament to speak against woodchipping.
She is highly regarded by forest activists who appreciate her genuine dedication and hard work to stop woodchipping.
In Sydney, Lee kept alive the campaign to save the south-east forests at a time when many conservation groups had given it away because it was too hard.
Lee Rhiannon represents the best traditions of environmental and forest activism.
Harriett Swift, Tarraganda
As the likelihood of The Greens holding the balance of power in the Senate starts to dawn on the LibLabs, it’s interesting (though hardly surprising) to note the malicious spin begin to gather momentum.
I worked on nature conservation issues with Lee Rhiannon in the early ‘90’s when she was the Sydney representative of the Rainforest Information Centre, an organization which I had founded 10 years earlier. Contrary to the accusations and innuendo in “The Greens are on centre stage” (The Australian, August 2), Lee’s interests and passion include both nature conservation and social justice. In the 1990’s she was instrumental in developing our campaign to prevent the entry of rainforest timbers into this country lobbying local councils not to use rainforest timbers and working with the maritime union to stop imports of cheap illegally sourced rainforest timbers.
She was also central to our successful campaign for a Senate inquiry into the environmental effects of the Australian government’s aid programme. This resulted in substantial changes being forced on AusAID (or AIDAB as it was then known) including the requirement that an Environmental Impact Assessment must henceforth accompany any Australian development assistance project and that, for the first time, Australian environmental laws must be adhered to in all projects even if taking place in a country without any such laws of its own. In 1993, she went on to found a new NGO, “AID/WATCH” to continue this oversight.
Since her 1999 election to the NSW Legislative Council she has continued to champion the protection of nature in NSW and beyond.
JohnSeedOAM, Rainforest Information Centre
What a ludicrous supposition to think of Lee Rhiannon as a ‘watermelon’. I know Lee Rhiannon as an ‘avocado’ – Green through and through.
Over 20 years ago Lee opened her home to myself and representatives of the nomadic Penan tribe of Borneo, who were (and still are) on the front lines of the battle to protect ancient forests that we all need for our survival. I remember discussions in her house about permaculture and practical lifestyle choices that are good for our health, our happiness and the planet – not communist plots. Just last year we travelled together to the ancient forests of Tasmania (being logged to produce woodchips for throw away paper products in Japan) to raise international awareness about this campaign.
The ‘watermelon’ allegation clearly appears a desperate attempt to discredit Lee’s good works throughout several decades – lets hope, for the good of forests and people, this attempt fails abysmally.
Anja Light, Woombah