Greens and Independents

While The Greens welcome the greater variety of voices brought by the Teal Independents as a win for democracy, we argue they aren’t breaking new ground but merely following the Greens model of ‘doing politics differently.’ Moreover, their values base is too narrow, and in particular lacks a social justice commitment to challenge unequal market power. 

By Rob Delves, a member of the Fremantle-Tangney Greens Regional Group and a co-editor of Green Issue.

BACKGROUND: The topic of The Fremantle Network’s July Politics in the Pub was An Independent for Freo, with Kate Chaney as a guest speaker along with Lily Jovic from Voices for Fremantle. I gave a short speech focused on the Greens response to Voices for Fremantle. What follows is the “expanded version” I’d give if I’d been allowed five or six minutes rather than the maximum two minutes requested of audience member presentations.

The Greens and Community Independents both want to strengthen our democracy by including a bigger variety of voices in the political arena. That’s a shared passion for a healthier democracy. The Greens also value what the Teals achieved at the 2022 federal election. While the Teals three core issues – climate, women and integrity ‒ make for a far too limited political platform, all three have been major Greens campaign issues from our beginning. So we will absolutely cheer like mad if you guys and gals knock off a few more smug bastards from Dutton’s Nasty Party in 2025.

There’s a lot more that we have in common. I’m sure everyone has noticed the flyer that Voices for Fremantle have put on the tables. It’s an attractive read, in fact a very attractive read, but let’s make one thing clear. You could cross off the word VOICES and replace it with the word GREENS and you wouldn’t need to change much at all. The Teals and Voices movement, admirable as they are, did not pioneer this grassroots approach to doing politics differently. Participatory Democracy has been a fundamental Greens way of working for over 30 years. That’s how The Greens started and how we continue.

The Voices for Fremantle flyer declares that they seek a candidate committed to policies that are evidence based and grounded in the core value of compassion. We’re at one with you here. To illustrate, I’ll use one important Greens policy as an example.

We’re campaigning for dental and mental health care to be free under Medicare. Is there a sound evidence basis for this?  The answer is a resounding YES: health economists support this policy and argue that it would almost pay for itself because early intervention is much cheaper than having to treat advanced dental and mental health issues. Secondly, is it a compassionate policy? Here the answer is also YES ‒ the core value of compassion demands that, especially in a wealthy country like Australia, nobody should be denied essential dental and mental health care because they are too poor to afford it. 

We are also conducting extensive community consultation on this and other major policies. The Greens commitment to participatory democracy means ongoing conversations across the electorate, always trying to adhere to the rule of listen 70% and speak 30%. Happily our conversations show that just about everyone welcomes this dental and mental health care policy initiative, and agrees that it is affordable.

However, I’d like to critique Voices for Fremantle’s focus on compassion. It’s a beautiful character trait for humans to hold, but as a political value it lacks the hard edge needed to challenge the rich and powerful. I believe that social justice is a much more appropriate core value than compassion in the political realm. Perhaps the best current example of this is the housing crisis. Nearly everyone acknowledges that our housing system is in crisis, driven by deep inequality between the housing haves and have nots. This inevitably means that the housing system fails to provide decent, affordable, secure homes for renters.  Rents are so high that they condemn hundreds of thousands of lower income households to poverty. The logical political response dictated by compassion is Commonwealth Rent Assistance for lower income renters. This certainly helps them and The Greens have long argued for this assistance to be increased.

However, The Greens believe that this compassionate response is inadequate. While it certainly helps poorer families stay afloat it doesn’t go to the core of the problem. A policy response driven by social justice, rather than compassion, is needed to address the structural issues, or differences in market power, that have created this unfair situation. That means giving renters more rights, more power and control. So The Greens champion rent controls, longer and more secure tenancies, and rights to have pets, make minor improvement so that their rented house is indeed a place to call home.

The Community Independents seem to be focused on electing someone to advocate on local Freo issues. The Greens agree that’s important. However, you’re also electing someone to contribute to decisions on big things that matter for everyone. So, for example, if The Greens can succeed in getting dental and mental healthcare free under Medicare, everyone in Fremantle benefits. If The Greens get free education from early childhood to university, it’s a big win for Fremantle’s young people and families.

Armed with these and many other policies, The Greens are going hard to unseat Labor in Fremantle. We have already talked to over 1,000 people and our doorknocking is only just warming up. So, Lily, I’m about to make you an offer you can’t refuse: why don’t we meet at the bar after, and I’ll pass on all The Freo info from our hundreds of hours of conversations. In return, how about you give us Simon Holmes a Court for a couple of weeks, so he can help us raise money – I’ve heard he’s red hot on the money.

How’s that for a deal? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a toast: The Greens and Community Independents – a Mutual Admiration Society, united in their desire to put a seriously large rocket up the ALP and Liberals, challenging their arrogant, democracy-destroying belief that between them they are entitled to own every bloody parliamentary seat in Australia.

Header Photo: Ex-Labor Senator Fatima Payman and independent Senator David Pocock walking "thoughtfully" together in the Senate Chamber. _{Credit: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ AAP Image}

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