CONTRIBUTOR: The “climate election” has delivered a harsh lesson for those of us who believe that we are indeed facing a climate emergency. After recent alarming scientific predictions and destructive weather events, one would think the Greens would be in the box seat for gains.
However, more startling than the result for Labor is the fact that the Greens have increased their representation by only a piddling 0.4 per cent on the 2016 election results. This is a damning repudiation of their policy platform and their approach to advancing the climate cause within the Australian electorate.
Given the passion demonstrated by the school protesters who recently made their views heard around the country, the Greens lacklustre performance is also a direct challenge to young voters and emerging voters who want to see Australia play a constructive part on climate in the world community.
Who else but the Greens can a young person turn to for an unambiguous climate platform? Yet the reality is that the Greens party has ensured that it remains a moribund, marginalised fringe player in Australia’s political discourse. It is doubtful that it will ever be more than that until it embraces the hopes and aspirations of the broader Australian community.
Yes in 2017, the Greens got a state member in Queensland, however, the vote for the party has gone nowhere in Victoria and Tasmania.
In New South Wales, the state party managed to hold on to most of its vote but lost two representatives in the Legislative Council. The election last week was not a generalised plebiscite on the Australian public’s appetite for climate action per se, but rather their willingness to embrace a range of policies that offered action at significant cost.
Despite Richard Di Natale laying the blame on the Coalition’s “ultra-negative tactics and millions received in big corporate donations” that stood in the way of Green gains in the federal election, the fact is that the Australian polity has clearly demonstrated its self-interest priorities.
I don’t doubt that in general, the average Australian wants to do the right thing for our climate and our world. They just don’t want to be losers as a result.
I do not believe that the Australian psyche has generally been infected by denialism. Rather, I think that unwillingness to broadly embrace the Green’s policy message is reflective of a denial of proffered solutions that do not adequately acknowledge the incredibly difficult challenges of living in the 21st century.
Climate action cannot be reduced to a zero sum game for ordinary voters. The difficulties faced worldwide in gaining traction for climate action is proof that we desperately need climate champions that offer nuanced, aspirational but achievable climate policy. This is a very difficult task, both practically and psychologically.
There is only one issue that binds all the rings of power, to use a Lord of the Rings analogy. Without a healthy environment, our economy, social fabric and place in the world are all at risk.
The Greens have tried to strategically broaden their remit, with a cross-sectoral policy platform. I would argue this attempt at a broad platform has diluted the centrality of their key green purpose. As a result, they have opened themselves to charges of political extremism and placed them at the outer fringe of Australian politics.
There is only one issue that binds all the rings of power, to use a Lord of the Rings analogy. Without a healthy environment, our economy, social fabric and place in the world are all at risk.
I believe that the Greens platform must be refocused. They will never be a third major party to challenge the entrenched duopoly of Australian politics.
In order to cut through all the conflicting influences and interests in climate and environmental policy, the Green should stop trying to generalise their reach by trying to be economic or social science advocates.
Rather they should stick to their core purpose and offer a viable mainstream advocacy for doable, broadly acceptable climate and environmental action for those of us that see this issue for what it is – the greatest moral and existential threat we currently face.
The solutions to climate will come from new, emerging technologies
While the fossil fuel and extractive industries wedge Labor in the conflicting pincer between climate and jobs, the solutions to climate will come from new, emerging technologies.
We need a climate advocate that will not only “keep the bastards honest” as the Democrats used to say, but will attract and represent an enlightened future of Australian jobs and industry.
Tags: climate emergency, election, politics, The Greens
Source: The Fifth Estate
