Wednesday 28 November 2007

The Greens have earned their bragging rights

"THE Greens have declared themselves Australia's third-largest political party claiming to have out-performed the Nationals by a "country mile".
The party says it attracted nearly 1.1 million (9.02 per cent) senate votes at Saturday's federal election compared with less than 6 per cent for the Nationals.
 
The Greens have certainly earned bragging rights after election night, and as a number of new Labor MPs in the House of Representatives gained their seats on the back of Green preferences, the incoming Rudd Government will ignore this party at its own future electoral peril.
 
WorkChoices may have been a principal concern of the Australian electorate last Saturday, but worry and alarm over climate change ran a very close second.
 
Technical aspects of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol are going to take some time to organise, so Federal Labor needs to hit the ground running with regard to domestic climate change mitigation measures.
 
The Rudd Government also needs to urgently consider facing down Monsanto acolytes in the agricultural sector and working towards a national permanent ban on genetically modified crops. In the meantime supporting state governments who have moratoriums on these crops and bringing Victoria back into line on this issue should be a priority. 
The Age on Monday:
 

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