Antinuclear

Australian Greens should avoid Peter Garrett’s fate

the experience of Peter Garrett shows that the Greens should be wary ……If a Greens MP or senator were to accept a ministerial position related to the environment or climate change, they would inevitably be forced to compromise….For the sake of the party’s future success, the Greens should decline an environment ministry in the Gillard government.

Peter Garrett: a cautionary tale for the Greens, By Sara Phillips, ABC Environment | 10 Sep 2010 “………speculation that one of the Greens may be given an environment-related ministry in a show of rainbow-coalition unity – much in the way that the Tasmanian Greens have assumed cabinet positions in that state’s minority government. But the Greens would be wise to knock back such an offer, if it were made……….the experience of Peter Garrett shows that they should be wary of stepping outside their traditional bounds too far just yet…….He was also the president of the Australian Conservation Foundation for 10 years, anti-nuclear campaigner, Greenpeace board member and advocate for aboriginal land rights….

…Garrett did what any politician in his position would do: announce a little thing here, tweak a little law there…

..Bob Brown said, “He hasn’t affected the Labor Party one iota. But the Labor Party machine has taken him over and turned him into an anti-green campaigner.”….The Greens are a bit like Garrett in that they come from an activist background, and carry the goodwill of the environment movement…..
If a Greens MP or senator were to accept a ministerial position related to the environment or climate change, they would inevitably be forced to compromise….
The damage to the reputation they have formed over 18 long years at the federal level would be irreparable.

The likelihood of winning such a large percentage of the vote at the next election would be shot.

For the sake of the party’s future success, the Greens should decline an environment ministry in the Gillard government.

Peter Garrett: a cautionary tale for the Greens › Environment Blog (ABC Environment)

September 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics, uranium | antinuclear, Australia, climate change, uranium