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A Perfect Political Climate for the Greens

Monday, 22nd May, 2006

A big advantage for minor parties is that they never have to weigh up their stands on issues against a need to secure the support of half the people in order to become a government. The Greens and Democrats are not in the business of becoming a government. They are in the business of influencing governments .

As a perpetual opposition, minor parties are spared having to consider the practical consequences of their various policy positions. They don't expect to ever be in a position to implement all of them. Their hope is to influence around the fringes.

These simple points should be remembered by anyone trying to understand how and why minor parties operate as they do. For them it is all care and no responsibility.

Circumstances could hardly be better for such an approach. It is when the economy is sound and well run that people perversely are prepared to take a chance in their approach to voting.

Governments of long standing are particularly vulnerable to electors deciding to give them a reminder that they don’t like being taken for granted. Voting for a minor party in the Senate is a perfect opportunity to do so safely.

This time there are some attractive single issues as well to attract people away from Liberal, National and Labor. Uranium policy is first among them.

Prime Minister John Howard has called for a debate on the subject and within Labor there is growing support for the abolition of the ludicrous three mines policy. As the major parties talk about the rights and wrongs of exporting uranium to India, the Greens will appeal to those Australians who think it is wrong to export it to anyone.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is doing his bit to elevate the Indonesian province of Papua into a second significant minority issue. Inclusion of recognition of Indonesian sovereignty over Papua in to a security treaty between our two countries might be perfectly sensible diplomacy.

Nevertheless it will jar with the small but probably growing number concerned about Indonesian mistreatment of indigenous Papuans. The Greens have consistently been sympathetic to the Papuan cause.

Last Thursday Greens Senator Kerry Nettle called on Mr Downer to seek an explanation from Indonesia following revelations of demonstrators being shot and killed by police in West Papua. “This is further graphic evidence of the violence and brutality in West Papua", Senator Nettle said, "and further evidence that autonomy in West Papua is not working."

That the clashes in Papua involve Muslims against Christians broadens the audience for remarks like Senator Nettle’s to groups that have become strong supporters of the Coalition.

And now we have the whales. The International Whaling Commission meets in the Caribbean this week and Japan and other pro-whaling countries are confident they have the numbers to take control. I

f that occurs, commercial whaling will soon follow.

The pressure on the Australian Government to take diplomatic action against Japan will be immense. Whatever words the Environment Minister Ian Campbell utters will not be enough. The environmental groups will want action which the Government will not feel able to take.

A perfect platform for some Green grandstanding.