Greens sacrifice the environment for votes

Greens sacrifice the environment for votes

Catherine Cusack
The Sunday Telegraph
December 30, 201212:00AM

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THE Greens paradox that bedevils Australian politics is set to make 2013 another troubled year for our natural environment.

It’s a paradox that sees the Greens exclusively claim to champion the cause of the environment, while doing more damage to their own cause than any party in the history of federation.

If you strip away the ex-socialist workers’ party policy threads that infiltrated the Greens platform and look at what they want for the natural environment, it can make appealing reading.

The twist is in their tactics, which have wedged mainstream parties out of the environment space, turning issues that once enjoyed bipartisan support into war zones, and demolished the credibility of non-Greens politicians who also happen to care about the environment.

Greens’ tactics have been a disaster for the conservation movement in NSW. The Greens say they will not negotiate legislation “as a matter of principle”. So once a decision was made to oppose the O’Farrell government’s legislation to sell electricity generators, the Greens would not budge.

This forced the O’Farrell government to negotiate with the Shooters, who take the opposite view. They will negotiate anything and everything to further their cause. And knowing the desperation of the O’Farrell government to free $4 billion in infrastructure funding, they demanded hunting in national parks as their quid pro quo.

If the Greens were willing to negotiate, the opposite outcome could have been achieved. Instead of hunting they might have extracted new funding for environmental causes as the Australian Democrats did when they supported the Howard government’s sale of Telstra in exchange for a $1 billion Natural Heritage Fund.

There is only one reason why the Shooters Party, with a fraction of the popular vote, control the Upper House. It’s because ironically, the Greens have handed the keys of power to the Shooters Party.

There are 42 members of the NSW Legislative Council – 14 Liberal, five National (total 19); 14 Labor, five Greens, two Shooters and two Christian Democrats. If the Greens chose to cast their votes with the Coalition government, the combined 24 votes would be enough to pass legislation without referring to other minor parties.

The refusal of the Greens to compromise lets down their voters and puts their political self interest ahead of the natural environment.

By forcing the O’Farrell government into a corner, which has seen the Shooters Party extract duck hunting and hunting in national parks, the Greens have created issues to galvanise their support base.

By doing deals with Labor for preference votes the Greens have made fools of every Liberal and National Party candidate who believes in a moderate approach to the environment. Why? Because Greens preferences directed against Liberals who champion the environment have wiped out our credibility.

That’s the great Greens paradox of Australian politics today. Not only have the Greens empowered their enemies (the Shooters), they have forced the conservative side of politics into a belligerent attitude to “green” issues.

The Greens’ decision to put the Shooters Party in control of O’Farrell government legislation reveals a far more sinister agenda in which anything – including and especially the natural environment – is to be sacrificed on the altar of votes.

Catherine Cusack is a Liberal member of the NSW Legislative Council