First Greens MP in QLD
Blog Post | Blog of Bob Brown
Sunday 5th October 2008, 10:36pm
by BobBrown in
I'd like to introduce you to our new Greens MP in Queensland - Ronan Lee, the Member for Indooroopilly.
Ronan became Queensland's first Greens MP hours ago when he resigned from the Labor Party, and joined the Queensland Greens.
Ronan has joined the Greens because he feels, as I do, that so much more can be achieved for a greener way of life in Queensland.
I have just finished a press conference at the Mt Coot-tha Lookout in Brisbane with Ronan and it was really great to see that he put Queensland's natural advantages and need to reverse climate change at the forefront of his decision.
I'm really excited by today's events because Ronan will give the Queensland Parliament a strong and intelligent Greens advocate.
Now there will be a responsible voice free to challenge those old Labor and National-Liberal policies which, for example, threaten the death of the Great Barrier Reef and tens of thousands of jobs dependent on it.
Here's what Ronan said:
"The type of old-fashioned thinking that got our society in this climate change mess is not the type of thinking that can get us out of trouble - we need a major shift in policy focus with a genuine commitment to renewable energy, public transport, protecting our state's wilderness areas and a smarter water policy that reduces the need for major dams."
It's great to see so much momentum building in Queensland. If Queensland had the electoral systems used in other states, Greens would have been in Parliament decades ago. Now Ronan has made the big step so many Queenslanders have wanted.
Now with Ronan becoming our first Greens member, hundreds of thousands of Greens supporters in Queensland have a real say on the floor of Parliament.
You can listen to Ronan's statement via the Courier Mail website.
UPDATE - you can now watch the press conference.
Please let Ronan know that you're happy he's joined the Greens. Send us your personal welcome note to senator.bob.brown@aph.gov.au and we'll make sure he gets it.
Pic credit: Sarah Marshall, Courier Mail
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Comments
Ronan in for a hard time
It sounds good for the Greens, but the last noteable jumping ship, was from the Democrates to Labor. From memory. the member concerned had their legs cut of in the Parliament, and did not survive the subsequent election.
The major parties hate nothing more that what they consider traitors, and I suspect that Ronan will be lucky if anybody, from either major party / all members even talk to him.
It may have been more effective to stay where he was, and become a closet Green (or independant Labor member), working toward a greener society, than to have absolutley no say, and even worse, have no input into working toward change.
I am glad to hear of it. But
I am glad to hear of it. But I do feel that when an MP resigns their party, they ought to resign their seat and stand for re-election, too. If a person was elected as part of Party X, their electorate expects them to remain a part of it for their entire term.
Defections without a fresh mandate from the electorate can be very damaging to parties, but more so to parties with relatively few representatives in parliaments.
Watch Ronan Lee and Bob Brown on Youtube
Watch Ronan and Bob:
Part 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjp-XkrAel4
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izBFqftrw5Q
Does Ronan Lee belong in the Greens?
In addition to his environmentalism, Ronan Lee is well known for his socially conservative views on abortion and homosexuality. Despite his environmentalism I think he will make an odd fit for the Greens.
If he felt so strongly about the Traveston Dam, why didn't he resign from the Labor Party before the last election? The dam was a major part of the Government's election platform. His decision to jump to the Greens now smells of political opportunism.
Yes, Ronan is a strange fit
Ronan is my local MP. I voted for him in 2001, 2004 and 2007, in part because I know he is very environmentally conscious and has a track record on green issues, which have always been important to me.
That said, I don't agree with his - or the Greens' - opposition to the Traveston Dam. Brisbane is growing at close to 40,000 people a year. The only useful water catchment suitable for this city's needs that is beyond that of the Brisbane River is the one that begins at Maleny and becomes the Mary Valley. (There is also the coastal drainage area immediately behind the Sunshine Coast, but that's probably not suitable for dams, or if it was, would be needed by the Sunshine Coast.) Have a look at the Met Bureau's weather map showing catchments. It does actually rain in the Mary catchment. What is Brisbane to do otherwise - dry up? And if a swathe of desalination plants are suggested, are the Greens going to badmouth this alternative too because of the energy usage?
Ronan is socially conservative - a very different position to the Greens'. He opposes stem cell research as well as abortion and similar issues. I'm personally happy with those positions, so long as treatment of abortion allows for compassionate consideration of all the circumstances.
Ronan.
I heard about this last week as I was on holidays in Noosa. I nealry choked on my latte. It was so random. Im not sure either he is the best fit for the Greens like someone else said why didnt he join prior to the last election. This is opportunism. Nevertheless for the QLD Greens this is good news.
Solar Rights
Perhaps now someone in the Queensland Parliament will place this fundamental renewable energy issue firmly on the table for full public debate!
Conservative values?
He might have conservative values. So what? He's not a 'Sir Thomas More' and it looks like he's done the good thing and subordinated his previous beliefs for more progressive ones.
Toe the line.
I guess as he was in the ALP he is used to towing the line he will have to do the same in the Greens easy.
Why qGreens aren't supporting LNP with it's "Solar State" plan?
Ive just read Bob quoted :
"Senator Brown suggested the Greens would uphold a traditional, blanket preference deal with Labor, should Ms Bligh trash plans for Traveston Dam".
I find this disturbing and, putting it bluntly, a betrayal of the party's and the environments best interests. Let me explain:
My diligent reading of the environment policies of the 2 majors suggests, surprisingly, that this time the "tory" party policy is the much more closely aligned with the Greens'.
For a start, if traveston is THE issue sine qua non, their shadow minister for environment/climate, David Gibson, is from Gympie, traveston heartland, he GOT IN on a !! NO_DAM !! platform. There's no doubt he's solid, he owes his seat to it. That cannot be said about Labor, make no mistake about McNamara's antipathy to the Mary River push.
Also very significant is the public fact of the LNP's policy for a 44c/kwh Solar Power feed in tariff, across the board. That's a good start, much better than any thing from the Qld Coal Party,in terms of parity with the Greens' policy.
So Bob's deal making with labor,if correctly reported as above, is puzzling, and a betrayal of what I think is the majority greens' constituency's overriding concern, the absolute imperitive to work towards a sustainable energy economy/ecology balance, planetary and local. Sure each river catchment and species counts, but from a big picture perspective, it's a bad bad look.
What makes it worse is I can see how it works as a dog-whistle: Greens declare LaborMate prefernces position, -> stem the bleeding of votes from Member Ronan to Labor Dynasty-Interest, & -> labor preferences to greens in Indooripilly are maximised. Pieces of silver indeed
Is the point of all this just that Ronan's chance of keeping his seat is increased? Very Bad Look. It's a faustian bargain, and it won't work anyway. Better to show some integrity, and preference the party whose policies have the best fit with the Greens, and reap the reward across the board. It's a challenge I know, and noses might have to be held, but it looks to me, on the basis of policies, that the Tories make better electoral partners, this time. I challenge anyone to argue otherwise
I've been told that the tories real ,deep reluctance to a preference deal with Greens, if it came to that, is they are scared they could WIN and be stuck with being able to form a minority government, but only with Greens support. What a great position that would be to be in! Bring it on.
So you're putting a promise from the ALP that won't be worth the paper it's written on, before real committed quite-green stated policy from the LNP, with long term possibilities in terms of a new sort of a coalition, in which the planet matters? You'll have lost my vote, and anyone else I can convince. You were so close to ratting labor in some metropolitan seats , and you cave in like this?
Please Bob, no, not this wasy. Give Ronan a sabbatical, he's not gonna get up anyway... do you understand Qld Labor dynastics, and what they'll pour into the Indooripilly campaign? Sarah WARNER is not ordinary apparatchik. Who gave Anna her seat? Sarah's mother. This is payback time,in more ways than one. If you must run Ronan, run him in South Brisbane, make a big deal of it. Have a look at the numbers there. It'd be rough on Gary, for his great work, but I'm sure he could be made great use of if Ronan got up there. It's a game changer.
And realistically, Ronan coming in federally in on the #1 on the Qld Senate ticket express is a great result, and a winner. Don't be greedy.
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