Greens elitism pushes people to right-wing parties we now see gaining or regaining interest from middle Australia.
NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong’s recent New Matilda article entitled ‘Fascism Might Sound Like A Joke, But It’s No Laughing Matter’[1] strengthened my view that The Greens actually sustain One Nation.
In the article, Ms Leong absurdly lumps the political party I founded, Sustainable Australia Party, in with Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and Pauline Hanson to represent ”the rise of fascism”. Why?
Because like the NRMA[2] and other transport experts[3], Sustainable Australia Party links immigration (the main driver of population growth) to traffic congestion. Presumably these experts are also to be thrown into Ms Leong’s basket of fascists.
To be clear, Ms Leong is wrong in both fact and logic. The Sustainable Australia Party campaign poster that Ms Leong referred to in New Matilda actually called for “better public transport and lower immigration” to help ease road congestion, as we are supportive of a holistic approach that prioritises public transport investment over roads. But the opportunity to smear a centrist party was obviously too great for Ms Leong. She wanted to create a perception that Sustainable Australia Party simply blames immigrants for traffic congestion.
Sadly for Ms Leong, we don’t. We actually blame Coalition, Labor and Greens politicians for mismanaging this country and arrogantly dismissing complaints about declining living standards as fascism. Ms Leong’s elitism actually breeds this discontent and drives people into the arms of the right wing parties we now see gaining or regaining interest from middle Australia.
Some claim that our rapid population growth would be manageable if only we invested in ever more mass public transport. But that laudable goal is unrealistic.
Firstly, humans love the convenience of cars, and Ms Leong has not convinced people to abandon them to get to work, the shops or to their kids’ sporting fields on a Saturday morning. And secondly, ‘diseconomies of scale’ in our built up suburbs - where land is now no longer owned or free to our governments - has created a situation in which major new infrastructure is unaffordable due to its skyrocketing per unit costs.[4] This is particularly important as it is The Greens party’s pet project to densify our existing suburbs with more apartments, in response to also unsustainable sprawl. We cannot cost-effectively drop in new hospitals, schools, recreational green space, train lines and roads throughout existing suburbs. We would need to sell off our public assets, increase rates and charges, cut back services and destroy our environment in a futile attempt to pay for such things... Oh wait!
But supply and demand economics goes way above the idealistic head of Ms Leong.
When The Australia Institute reviewed the Victorian Greens’ state election promises on public transport, it concluded that “it was evident no party had based its promise around meeting passenger demand induced by population growth”.[5] Again, to state a plain fact, this very rapid population growth is mainly fuelled by high immigration, and it contributes greatly to congestion.
Those ‘fascists’ at The Australia Institute surely need a flogging!
So how did the modern Greens party come to this?
Green Left Weekly reports that we have to go back to the 1990s when the (clearly ‘fascist’) original Greens party members supported exactly the same population policy that Sustainable Australia Party does now – “stabilising" population numbers (hence the same call for lower immigration).[6]
For fear of being branded racist - or perhaps even fascist - by the far left, the Greens cleared the path for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation by vacating the middle ground on immigration numbers. It allowed John Howard to double immigration (more customers and cheap labour) for big business whilst using the distraction of stopping asylum seeker boats. The Greens have been played like a fiddle on immigration.
Most people agree that the community division exacerbated by Ms Hanson’s comments about minority groups is highly regrettable, and it certainly rails against Sustainable Australia Party’s inclusive values. But it is Greens politicians like Jenny Leong that underpin her relevance as Ms Hanson continues to fill the vacuum they left.
The refusal of Greens politicians like Bob Brown, Christine Milne, Richard Di Natale and Larissa Waters over many years to address Australia’s excessive immigration intake drives frustrated voters into Ms Hanson’s ever-waiting arms. This is despite its clear and growing environmental impacts “as rising consumption and increasing populations devour dwindling resources”[7].
Polling shows that the community is overwhelmingly opposed to Australia’s rapid population growth.[8] If our political elites refuse to address issues of importance to everyday Australians, more and more will turn to political alternatives. Cue Pauline Hanson from stage right.
For political advantage, when it comes to immigration, all Greens politicians ever want to talk about is refugees. This is bizarre given the fact that refugees only make up around ten percent of Australia’s record permanent immigration intake of over 200,000 per year, and also given the environmental origins of The Greens. Sweeping 90 per cent of the immigration issue and our growing population growth pressures under the carpet not only betrays sustainability principles, it builds legitimate community frustration.
The Greens should now join Sustainable Australia Party in calling for lower immigration, from 200,000 permanent migrants per year back to the long term average of 70,000. This would have no impact on our refugee intake, and indeed could make room for more.
But they won’t change. The modern Greens cynically use their moral one-upmanship on Ms Hanson to grow their own vote (not that it works). The result is a divisive left-right slanging match, with middle Australia watching on in frustration.
Pauline Hanson may have originally been endorsed by the Liberal party for the seat of Oxley, but as they sweep the main immigration issues under the carpet, it is Greens politicians that sustain her. I agree with Ms Leong that fascism is no joke, but when it comes to the environment, it’s the Greens themselves that are threatening to become one.
William Bourke is President of the Sustainable Australia Party.
This article appeared in Crikey on 25 Nov 2016.
Footnotes:
[1] https://newmatilda.com/2016/11/15/fascism-might-sound-like-a-joke-but-its-no-laughing-matter/
[2] http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/blacktown-advocate/traffic-congestion-in-blacktown-fuelled-by-growing-population-and-car-ownership/news-story/e36ef3e9b6d2a0a035fd7b3a67f6194e
[3] http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/peak-hour-in-sydney-is-getting-worse--and-longer-data-shows-20160310-gnftvd.html
[4] http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2016/10/infrastructure-cannot-outrun-population-ponzi/
[5] http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victoria-state-election-2014/election-promise-new-train-a-month-wont-meet-needs-of-growing-population-20141128-11w1t9.html
[6] https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/greens-change-their-immigration-policy
[7] http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/australias-environment-is-going-backwards-green-alliance-says-20141109-11iv6u.html
[8] http://www.news.com.au/tablet/massive-thumbs-down-for-big-australia/story-fnehlez2-1226560309280