Four Green Commitments

The South Metro doorknocking teams report they are getting very positive responses to these priority issues

By Rob Delves, GI Co-editor

A bold statement by Joe Biden soon after his inauguration echoes the key South Metro campaign message we have been presenting to voters for over five months now: Action to address the climate crisis will also address the jobs crisis. On January 27^th Biden announced: “Today is Climate Day at the White House, which means that today is Jobs Day at the White House.”  Well said, Joe. Our campaign flyers are headed: “We’re facing two major crises – a jobs crisis and a climate crisis. We can tackle both.”

Our four commitments are:

1. Drive a green economy in WA

2. Tackle the climate crisis

3. Restore integrity in government ‒ Ban corporate donations to political parties

4. Fund essential services – Ensure a home for everyone

On the campaign trail we are finding that when people read these statements, especially in the early months before the Christmas break, the one they most often strongly agreed with was number three. There is widespread understanding that big money is corrupting democracy, replacing the egalitarian principle of One Person, One Vote with the harsh reality that big money buys unfair influence over MPs and decision-making.

Younger people respond most positively to points one and two ‒ urgent action on climate change and massive investment in the creation of green jobs go hand in hand. We’re also stressing that economists agree with us that renewable energy is also cheaper energy and investing in it creates more jobs per million dollars spent.

Commitment number four became big news immediately after Christmas when the Tent City for homeless people was set up at Pioneer Park in the centre of Fremantle. Homelessness campaigners set up a food kitchen, toilets and other supports, which attracted around 100 people to the camp. Labor leader Mark McGowan reacted angrily as the days rolled by and media began telling the tragic stories of the people, including many First Nations people, pregnant women and the elderly. He blamed the organisers and the Fremantle Council for luring the people with false promises – spitting out special venom at Greens candidate Brad Pettitt.

However, we were finding overwhelming disdain for McGowan’s response, as people understood the obvious truth that the government has done very little to address the core of the homelessness problem: there are not enough houses for the people who need them. The state’s public housing waiting list swelled by 2000 in the last year, taking it to nearly 15,000.

As Alison Xamon pointed out at a public forum organised on January 21^st by The Greens, WA’s numbers are frightening:  at least 9,000 homeless, 1,000 living on the streets and yet the stock of social housing has actually reduced slightly since 2017. She advocated four priorities to solve the problem: increase funding and other supports for people suffering mental health problems, more focus on addressing the trauma experienced by First Nations people, employ more support services workers; and the obvious no brainer – urgently build more social housing, much more, with special attention to more variety of accommodation options.

Along with many others, I believe this is McGowan’s most immediate policy failure. Many people we spoke to were angry at McGowan’s pathetic attempt to shift blame to others – and also his promise to invest less that $49 million in “targeted homelessness packages to support vulnerable people.” The word Tokenism springs to mind.

While social housing is the big immediate issue, climate change inaction (aka we love gas) is recognised as Labor’s policy failure that threatens us all, even the millionaires in their big sea-level homes. At this election, where Labor looks certain to be returned to government, our doorknockers are finding that many people, including some rusted-on Labor supporters, are nodding in agreement when we talk about the preferential voting system. They can see that voting Greens 1, ALP 2 works perfectly to maintain Labor in power, but also sends a strong message that they need to lift their game on climate change action. Your vote works twice – it has double power! Equally, they agree that it’s good to have a variety of voices in the Upper House, especially strong advocates for climate action – like Brad Pettitt, for example.

Header photo: The White Gum Valley doorknocking team. Jarrod Tan

_{[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]}