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THE FAR-LEFT HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS The Greens’ past shows they are a party of the radical left, not the environment, argues Christian Kerr. THE FAR-LEFT HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS R Brown was a prominent figure in were joined by three other members— the Wilderness Society from its earliest Christine Milne, Lance Armstrong CHRISTIAN KERR Journalist with The Australian days. He wrote about rafting the and Di Hollister—largely elected in Franklin River in the very first issue protest against a proposed paper pulp of its journal and became the society’s mill at Wesley Vale, outside the north- paradox lies at the very director in 1978, putting him at the eastern centre of Devonport. heart of the Greens. ‘The very forefront of the dam debate. It was during this term of first Green Party anywhere It was an Australian Democrat, parliament that the movement got in the world began in Norm Sanders, who was first elected a name. The Tasmanian Wilderness AAustralia in 1972, the United to the state parliament off the back Society had already spread to the Tasmania Group, which grew out of of the controversy. He became a mainland, dropping the specific state pioneering Australian environmental member for Denison in a by-election reference as its work broadened. campaigns,’ the official creation story early in 1980, the first Australian The growing political organisation on their website reads. ‘Early elections political candidate elected on an found a title too. saw Greens representatives hold the environmental platform. But Brown The title came from the Green balance of power at the state level, very much became the face of the ‘No Ban campaigns in Sydney of the including Bob Brown and Christine Dams’ campaign as it spread beyond early 1970s which had begun after Milne in Tasmania. In 1992, the Tasmania and mounted as a federal women from the well-heeled suburb Greens formed a national party.’ issue as the 1983 election loomed. of Hunters Hill, rebuffed by the local Not only is this strangely Sanders resigned from the council and Liberal state government, condensed. It omits what appealed to the hard- one would think are details THE GREAT PARADOX OF THE GREENS IS THAT left New South Wales absolutely crucial to the THEIR ORIGINS LIE IN A CAMPAIGN TO FIGHT THE branch of the militant story of the Greens. >DEVELOPMENT OF A SOURCE OF RENEWABLE Builders Labourers Yes, the Greens were ENERGY Federation to stop born from the United local development. Tasmania Group. It itself Jack Mundey, sprang from the Lake Pedder Action parliament at the end of 1982 in the BLF leader, coined the term at group, the body formed to try to protest at what he described as the start of 1973 to differentiate its revoke the removal of national park the ‘totalitarian’ treatment of dam environmentally-focussed actions status and flooding and enlargement protesters by the state government. from the traditional union ‘black bans’. of the south-west Tasmanian lake as More than 1500 had been arrested, The actions spread in 1973 and part of a hydro-electric project in the including Brown. 1974 across different parts of Sydney. late sixties and early seventies. Under Tasmania’s electoral system, The union and activists joined forces The group was created to contest a count back was held to determine to block developments in Potts Point seats at the 1972 Tasmanian election, who would succeed Sanders in and the Rocks, in the Anglican-church as flooding was set to get underway. Denison. The successful candidate owned areas of Glebe, and against It came within a few hundred votes was announced on January 4 1983. a freeway development that would of winning a seat, but its vote declined It was Brown, who the same day had have cut through the inner-western at the next election. Many of its emerged from 19 days in Hobart’s suburbs of Ultimo, Annandale, Rozelle members and other Lake Pedder Risdon Prison for obstructing workers and Leichhardt. activists drifted into the Tasmanian at the Franklin Dam site. The movement impressed a young Wilderness Society in 1976, including Brown had contested Denison visiting German bureaucrat from the the Launceston general practitioner at the 1982 poll as an independent. He European Commission and left-wing Bob Brown. was returned in the 1986 Tasmanian activist, Petra Kelly. She was fascinated The Wilderness Society was election, along with a second by the collaboration between the formed to continue and expand the environmental campaigner from workers of the BLF and the residents work of the Lake Pedder campaign— the neighbouring seat of Franklin, of the bohemian or rapidly gentrifying and harness its energy to stop the Gerry Bates. areas where the Green Ban actions Hydro-Electric Commission’s planned The movement continued to grow occurred. Franklin Dam on the Gordon River in in strength. Both Brown and Bates The name stuck with her and when the state’s rugged south-west. were returned at the 1989 election, and at the start of 1980 she became a key AUGUST 2013 | IPA Review 17 R THE FAR-LEFT HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS Volume 65 I 2 The Greens woodchip protest AT THE VERY CORE OF THE GREENS’ PHILOSOPHY TODAY IS THAT THE PLANET ITSELF IS FACED BY AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS THAT CAN ONLY BE RESOLVED BY RADICALLY >REMODELLING NOT JUST THE ECONOMY, BUT SOCIETY ITSELF CONTINUED their symbol while at the same time treaty, they were constitutionally valid driver in an effort to unite groups of adopting a name that attempted to under the Commonwealth’s external environmentalists, peace activists, hide the fact that it actually was a affairs powers. anti-NATO, anti-nuclear and anti- party. Even now the media simply The environmental issues of 2013, industrialisation protesters into a refers to them as the Greens. It however, are very different to those of single movement in a drive for real was telling that the day after Milne 1983. True, some are still fought on a political power and parliamentary discarded her agreement with the case by case, location by location basis. representation in her homeland she government that Julia Gillard, for the But at the very core of the Greens’ bestowed it on the new body. They very first time, referred to them as ‘the philosophy today is that the planet became Die Grünen, the Greens. Greens party’. itself is faced by an existential crisis The emerging political force There was a lack of honesty in its that can only be resolved by radically in Tasmania borrowed back the actions, an ambiguity—an ambiguity remodelling not just the economy, but name. They had originally been ‘the that continues to match the paradox of society itself—and the relationship of Independents’. At the end of 1991 they the party that is so obvious today. both with the ecology. became ‘the Green Independents’. By The 30th anniversary of the election At the heart of that existential August of 1992 they had become ‘the of the Hawke government on March crisis—or at least one of its most Greens’. 5 this year was also heralded by the crucial elements—is the supposed At the same time, the movement Greens as the 30th anniversary of threat of climate change, of global took the green triangular logo that the saving of the Franklin. Hawke warming caused largely by the had been the symbol of the Franklin had promised to block the proposal. production and use of coal to generate protestors, removed the words UNESCO had awarded world the electricity that not only powers ‘No Dams’, and replaced them with the heritage listing status to the wild our industries, but powers—and party name. rivers of Tasmania in December 1982. empowers—our society. It was an act rich in symbolism— The incoming Hawke government The great paradox of the Greens and hypocrisy. The anti-Franklin went on to introduce legislation is that their origins lie in a campaign protests, like the protests against to stop work on the Franklin Dam to fight the development of a source the flooding of Lake Pedder before and successfully defending its acts of renewable energy, hydro-electrical them, had been community-based against a High Court challenge by power, that their great day of social movements. Tasmania, saying that as they dealt celebration marked the effective end A political party had appropriated with a listing under an international of the push to develop this cheap and 18 IPA Review | ipa.org.au THE FAR-LEFT HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS R carbon-neutral means of powering the movement, opponents of the two Gulf from 1990. Tasmanian economy. Wars and involvement in Afghanistan, Valentine cited the Quakers and Nothing was said about this on anti-urban development activists, the the Vietnam Moratorium movement March 5 by this supposed party of the women’s and gay rights movements, as keys to her activism. While a environment. It is a fact that simply animal activists, the community legal parliamentarian, she was arrested cannot be acknowledged by any centres movement, opponents of coal protesting outside the Australian/ member. This dark, guilty secret, the seam gas, opponents of genetically US joint facility at Pine Gap. She also party’s very own original sin, is kept modified organisms… the list goes on. marched against the American Clark absolutely hidden. Which begs the Their former national convenor, Air Base in the Philippines. question: what else do the Greens have Stewart Jackson, said in his doctoral She resigned citing ill health in to hide? thesis ‘the Australian Greens has a March 1992 (while continuing active The Lake Pedder and Franklin complex history, bringing together a involvement in various anti-American, Dam struggles are central to the number of different strands of social anti-uranium, anti-nuclear and Greens mythos.

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