2016-05-26
Emma Davidson
Name: Alex Bhathal
Age: 51
Role with the Greens: Candidate for Batman
1. What do you remember about your first election?
I was 8 when the Whitlam government was elected. I saw the final end of White Australia and the impact it had on my own family, and that was the beginning of my interest in politics.
2. Leadbeater's possum or eastern longneck turtles?
Both
3. What's your precious place and why?
The trig station hill on Yarra Bend Boulevard, Alphington — I love that it has never been built on and it looks over Wurundjeri lands to the north, south and west. Before the CBD was built up, you could have seen the bay from there. I can see Preston from there and out to Kinglake. I like riding down at night and hanging out there on my own.
4. Favourite Greens policy?
Right now — our proposed intake of 50,000 refugees a year. When I joined in 2001, our GLBTQI platform — because I glimpsed a different world through the Greens.
5. Best part of your work with the Greens?
I loved being Australian Greens International Co-Secretary and attending our third Global Greens Congress in Dakar, where I sat in a forum next to the immediate ex-PM of Niger and the current Chief Minister of Burkina Faso (both Greens politicians). At that moment I realised that our movement really is a world phenomenon, and in that sense, this century's successor to Liberalism and the International Labour movement. But the best part of my involvement in the Greens is working with other Greens in a new way of doing politics.
6. What keeps you going?
Dark chocolate and faith in humanity
7. Favourite political song?
"From Little Things, Big Things Grow."
8. Who inspires you? Why?
Shanaka Fernandez, Founder of Lentil As Anything. Because he is humble, he feeds people, including those who would otherwise go hungry, he is an activist in all kinds of endeavours and he makes a difference in many people's lives.
9. Comfort food?
Chapatis and dahl.
10. What would you spend $20 billion on?
- Restoring free education;
- Increasing all income support payments above the poverty line;
- Funding the transformations in our energy, transport and agriculture to move Australia to a zero carbon, zero pollution new economy.
11. Secret vice?
I spend too much money at craft markets.
12. Best coffee/drink in town?
Hot chocolate from Cedar's Bakery, High Street, Preston
13. Three apps you can't live without?
App, sorry?
14. What did you want to be when you grew up?
A politician and an anthropologist
15. Morning run or night time swim?
I'm a swimmer and I'm not a morning person either.
16. What's your greatest hope for the future?
That we act in time on global warming and transform our global economy so it functions with sustainability at its core.
17. Magic wand to solve one world problem — what would it be?
Structural reforms to global governance, so we can solve the world-wide inequities that underlie our world problems.
18. What advice would you give a new volunteer?
Get to know the Greens and what really sets us apart — read our constitution; read our Charter and attend as many events as you can — then find your place.
19. You can travel through time — where do you go?
100 years hence — out of anxious, driving curiosity to see if we did act effectively on global warming.
20. If you weren't doing this for a living, what would you be doing?
I'd be a social worker (which is what I actually do for a living).