Greens MPs

This is a speech I delivered to the Sydney Institute last night. You can also listen to it here or download a pdf here.

Sydney Institute, October 27th 2008.

Green Politics, the Balance of Power and the Green New Deal.

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening about Green Politics, Balance of Power and the twin global meltdowns of climate and finance. There has never been a more critical time to be a Green and there has never been a time when the philosophy and experience of Green politics - based on forty years of environmental, social justice, peace and democracy campaigning - has been more important. The decisions that will be made in the next five years are crucial for the future of life on Earth.

In excellent news this morning, The Age reports that Christine Milne's amendments to the Luxury Car Tax, exempting fuel efficient vehicles from the levy, are already having an impact!

Ian Porter writes:

"THE changes made to luxury car tax have already started to influence the design of premium cars, with Audi announcing plans to install smaller diesel engines in some of its models so they consume less than seven litres per 100 kilometres - and become exempt from the tax."

Audi Chief Joerg Hofmann is quoted as saying:

We've spoken before about some of the great Web 2.0 projects that are bringing attention (and much needed excitement) back into politics. Now there is another fantastic tool available for anyone wanting to better engage with their Parliament - GetUp's Project Democracy.

ABC TV watchers amongst you may have seen the promos already for Christine Milne on the newish Q&A program this Thursday night, July 10, at 9.30 pm.

She will be on the panel, focussed on 'Welcome the new Senate', with Senator Helen Coonan, Minister Craig Emerson, author Linda Jaivin and everybody's favourite opinionated columnist, Andrew Bolt.

As well as watching the program, please think about asking questions of Christine and the other panellists - about the Senate and balance of power, about the Garnaut Review, about appropriate responses to climate change, peak oil and the transport crisis, or anything at all that interests you!

Senator NETTLE (New South Wales) (1.40 p.m.) - I would like to say thank you to the people of New South Wales for giving me what has been an incredible opportunity over the last six years to represent them here in this parliament. I have really enjoyed my time here. The thing that I have enjoyed the most is the opportunity to help individuals who have a particular passion for something and to assist them in getting their voice heard or assist them with the problem which they are trying to resolve. Some of those problems have been resolved and some of those are yet to be resolved. It has been an incredibly rewarding experience.

With the Infrastructure Australia Bill having passed the Senate in its original form this morning, this article from me discussing its implications was published in New Matilda today.

The Rudd Government's Bill to establish Infrastructure Australia is currently being debated in the Senate, with several amendments being proposed and debated by Christine.

With the Senate numbers still to be finalised - and maybe a while off - we do have one milestone we can confirm: achieving the million votes mark in the Senate.

So here we are. It's taken me this long to get through the firewall here and start blogging, but here we go...

You'll have seen the exit polls by now, I imagine. And the numbers are starting to go up on the big board. Not that that matters, anymore, of course, in our online world.

I've been told that we're over 20% in Sydney, Melbourne, Richmond and many more.

We've had a lot of queries coming in about where our preferences are being directed for those who wish to vote above the line, so I thought I'd post the relevant link to help people out.