Labor may not give the Greens its preferences
It looks like Labor won’t be giving the Greens its preferences in the upcoming WA senate election.
Why is this a problem for Australia?
This election is vital to minimising Abbott’s influence in the Senate, and thereby minimising the damage he does to our country. We need Ludlam there to protect us. Without Labor’s preferences, Ludlam may not be re-elected to the Senate, and we could lose his important influence. Plus, we won’t be seeing any more spectacular performances like this smack-down of Abbott…:
Here’s how you can help
- Write to or email John Graham, Labor’s NSW Assistant General Secretary, who is leading preference negotiations, and demand Labor gives preferences to the Greens in the WA senate election.
- Encourage any Western Aussies you know to vote Green.
- Encourage any WA youth you know to register to vote. Nearly a quarter aren’t registered!
Here’s what I sent to John Graham
My printer is broken, so I wasn’t able to send a letter. Instead, I emailed the following to NSWLabor@nswalp.com:
SUBJECT: ATTN: John Graham - Give the Greens your preferences
Dear Mr Graham,
I’ve just read that the Labor Party is planning not to give its preferences to the Greens in the upcoming WA senate election.
I’m very disappointed.
The Greens are a necessary voice in our governmental system, and Scott Ludlam, in particular, clearly has our country’s best interests at heart. What’s more, Ludlam is doing a spectacular job of discrediting Abbott and the Liberal party, outcomes which I would have thought you’d applaud.
Please do not deny the Greens your preferences.
Australia is watching. If you are seen to oppose the Greens, you’ll be seen to side with Liberal. Australians are already disillusioned with our two-party system. They see both parties as almost identical. Don’t make the situation worse for yourselves.
Kind regards, Glenn Murray
I’m more than happy for you to adapt this email.
Ludlam is a clear voice agaisnt the abbott government and can only help all who oppose it!
You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But he’s also opposed to offshore and long-term detention for asylum seekers and corporate-led governance, so I suppose Labor sees him as more of a threat to their true foundation than Liberal is. This issue will certainly tell us a lot.
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.
Mr Ludlam is one of the inspirational performers in Australian politics. Clever, articulate, & witty. He appreciates the broad scope of Australian history and can envision the sort of Australia that I want to live in in the future.
Australian democracy needs Scott Ludlam in the senate!
Exactly right, Jason. Very well put. 🙂
I agree Jason. Sending my email off now. Hope I’m not too late!
I totally agree Labor are only hurting themselves by this spiteful action , Scott must be reelected to the senate . I am a labor and greens voter
Seems obvious, doesn’t it? It’s hard not to think there’s something else more insidious going on… :-\
As a long term supporter of the ALP, I urge you to support the greens for the Senate in WA.
Thank you
I went to see you Scott Ludlum with my friends this week. He was very inspiring and had some amazing ideas, especially about the environment & how badly W.A. is being run at present.
Please Labour, please link up with the Greens so that the Libs don’t get back in.
The address he gave in parliament was an effective presentation, however, the part that put me off is where he appealed to “…a state where an entire generation have been priced out of affordable housing.”
Any politician who has an interest in affordable housing would have abolishing negative gearing as at least one of their policy points, yet the Greens ignore this issue.
I wouldn’t say they’ve ignored it. In their Housing policy, they say this:
“Existing subsidies and incentives for property investment should be reviewed with a view to guaranteeing housing affordability…” http://greens.org.au/policies/housing
I don’t know how vocal they’ve been about it, because I haven’t been tracking it, but a quick search revealed a few results like this: http://wa.greens.org.au/content/greens-welcome-overdue-debate-property-taxes
“…yet the Greens ignore this issue.”
The above part of my statement was probably a little lazy. That Scott raised the issue in that address to Parliament shows they are not ignoring the issue, as your reply points out.
However, I would still say that they are ignoring the issue in the sense that they are not advocating for the solutions, such as removing negative gearing.
To compare, imagine if their refugee or environmental policy pages basically said that a review needs to be conducted?
As an aside, when removing negative gearing was voted up to being one of the number one issues for a Get Up campaign, they canned the idea and said that their core supporters (baby boomers) did not want to run with this issue.
My guess, which I would be happy to be proven wrong on, is that the same will be the case for the Greens on removing negative gearing.
Gotcha. Yeah, I suspect you’re right on the above. I did wonder, myself, why the non-committal “review” and the evasive “incentives for property investment” instead of ‘eliminate negative gearing’!
Another reason for being cautious about their position on this topic is, “Do the Greens have the capacity to take strong positions on topics or are they just fence sitters?”
Clearly, the Greens DO have the capacity to take strong positions on topics, which is another reason why their lack of a strong position on this says something.
At the last election I did my best to evaluate Adam Bandt’s policy position on affordable housing compared with everyone else running when I was living in Melbourne and ranked them accordingly: http://bit.ly/1gfs0Ld
I guess it was after that that I was a bit more aware of their stance on this topic.
Refugees & Immigration is a very complex topic though and something that I would need to read a lot of “reviews” on before being able to form sensible opinions on!