Locking in car use makes no sense at all unless it makes you money...?

Here is a copy of a letter published in the Melbourne Sunday Age on 28/3/10 in response to this article: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/new-suburbs-forced-to-adopt-car-culture-20100320-qnag.html

DEBORAH Gough's article ''New suburbs forced to adopt car culture?'' (21/3) highlights the government's short-term focus on building car-only suburbs. Good road infrastructure is essential. However, for every dollar spent on roads, a dollar should be spent on transport alternatives to private cars (trains, buses, trams, taxis). New roads alone will not keep traffic flowing.

As the Greens candidate in the recent Altona byelection, I campaigned for proper access to effective public transport. For this electorate, the starting point is providing good shuttle bus services to the train system and community hubs. Instead, the government has spent more than $1.4 billion upgrading the West Gate/Monash Freeway, which will provide only momentary relief (once you get over the bridge bottleneck).

The only benefit of the current ''plan'' is locked-in government revenue from water, electricity and petrol taxes.

Back in the saddle again as the Greens candidate for Altona

I'm happy to say that I have again been endorsed as the Greens candidate for the state seat of Altona.

Why would I bother?  Well its obvious really, with rising petrol prices, electricity prices, water prices (and we ain't seen nothing yet), its pretty clear that tapping into limited resources has run its course.  Moving to alternatives will take effort, money, enterprise, smarts, ideas and political will.

Australia has plenty of the first five and it seems none of the last - if you and I don't stand up, who will... so count me in.

Challenging the status quo

This is a copy of a letter that appeared in the Sunday Age 28/3/10.

An excellent article by Melissa Fyfe on the Greens (Sunday Age 21/2), though I suggest she mistook many of the Greens’ strengths for weaknesses. 

It is true the party uses agreement rather than brutal –winner-takes-all- number crunching to make decisions.  it is true that it our MLCs are considered and serious in proposing and improving legislation.  And true, the Greens are not consumed by a ‘leadership’ cult. 

Like all growing movements, there are barriers to communicating with the electorate. However, the prevailing message that the Greens are creative, energetic and optimistic is clear and well received.

As the candidate for the Greens in the Altona by-election, I spoke in my own voice about issues I believe in.  I joined the Greens because they do not replicate the current inadequacies of our democracy, like the stalemate between the Labor and Liberal parties.

I suggest that this alternative approach, coupled with a strong policy framework built around social justice, equity and sustainability is precisely why 1 million plus voters choose to vote Green and why our voter base grew again by another 2% at the recent byelection.

Another good knock shows Greens aren't swingers

The three major parties hit the hustings for an intense 3 week campaign in this Altona by-election.  Labor and Liberal both pulled out all stops with media and letter box blitzes, digging deep into cash reserves.  The Greens pushed hard out in the community, building on the excellent advocacy of Colleen Hartland MLC over the last few years.

For the first time in the history of this seat, the Labor party needed the preferences of the Greens and independents to get elected, their primary vote falling short of the 50% required.  We grew our primary vote to 10.43%, now above the state average for the Lower House at the 2006 election of 10.04%. 

I stress the word 'grew' our vote, with the dominance of the two parties in the psyche of the Australian people, voting for the Greens is completely different to voting Liberal to lodge a protest vote.  There are additional hurdles; is it a wasted vote, are they just a bunch of hippies, do they only have one issue, can they be trusted?  It represents a commitment to go beyond the status quo.

This by-election shows once again there is a growing awareness that the Thirdy party can and does make a difference, that there is a better way forward, that we can revitalise our democracy and break the stalemate.

It also shows that with the continued growth of the grass roots of the Greens, the reliance on consensus, the value of contribution, that we can organise and contest elections as effectively as the well heeled parties.  Well the support act is over the Main Events, state and national, are rolling in - lets make it a good year.

Strange equation; take the sunniest continent on earth, add a massive housing boom plus a former world leader in solar = COAL

In touring the electorate and knocking on doors, what has become abundantly clear to me is that we are currently trapped in a time warp. When discussing solar energy with a resident (you know that free power source), she questioned why you would not have roof tiles that were solar panels, rather than afix panels to the roof. Well Colleen Hartland (Greens MLC), informs me that in Germany (that sunny place in Central Europe) they now have roofing materials that are precisely that and are now removing house roofs and replacing them with solar roofs.

Imagine this for a moment, we are constructing 10,000 new residences in the electorate as we speak, if each one of them was a effectively a solar panel, feeding excess power into the grid they would be earning money. Because these roofs are expensive infrastructure they could be funded by the municipality / state, with the income generated repaying the infrastructure and when paid off, the proceeds going to the council for services. The net result, almost free power for residents, reduced rates for residents and reduced strain on the environment. An added bonus is the huge demand for panels which will support the new industry and research for the future to employ people displaced as the fossil fuel industry winds down.

Am I living in a dream world, its seems in Australia yes, however in Germany they are bringing this to a reality. I know we are all waiting to get the whole world to agree on how to tackle climate change before getting serious about it here. Think about that - get the whole world to agree - I'd rather watch the grass grow.

Meanwhile lets focus on reducing the costs of living for Australians now, lets focus on providing transport and education, with that focus, social problems will be reduced and environmental problems with them. Lets focus on new solutions to solve new problems.

Its what we do today that counts, not what we talk about doing tomorrow.

Did you hear the one about the elderly woman who couldn't get off the train platform...

I had a gentleman call me today, he got my number from a distributed leaflet. After introducing himself, stating that he was a labor voter, he said he was looking to vote Green and thought I may be interested in a recent incident his daughter experienced.

His daughter works in North Melbourne and gets there by riding her bike to Laverton station and then catching the train to North Melbourne. Laverton is one of the lavish new train stations built at great expense and it has that new innovation of stairs (steep stairs) and a lift, in place of the once traditional ramp. The lift is a problem for cyclists, it takes a bit of manoeuvring to fit one into the small space, however yesterday the lift was not working. Fortunately she got two fellas from the platform to carry her bike down the stairs to the train.

However the real implications of this poor design (presumably by someone who does not use public transport) was that a woman who had caught the train to Laverton, could not use the lift, because the lift was broken, and due to her age, she could not climb the steep stairs and so she could not get off the platform. I know you think I'm kidding and saw this on a late night comedy skit, however that's the way it was.

I'm guessing it may be a surprise to the designers of these good looking but functionally average facilities that stairs had been invented when the stations were originally built, however ramps were deliberately installed because of their huge functional advantage. For anyone who has ever run for a train down a ramp and run down stairs, you'll understand why the ramps there.

The most unfortunate part of all this money spent on train stations is that it is a misallocation of scarce resources. These upgrades to Laverton, Footscray, North Melbourne at massive cost do marginally increase the comfort of passengers, and I stress marginally, however fixing the crumbling infrastructure like the points and signals, removing bottlenecks and delays, would be a much better use of the money. What I'm saying is I'd rather wait on the old platform for the scheduled train to arrive than wait on the new platform for the scheduled train to be cancelled or late.

I can see only two explanations for the perpetuation of this poor transport system; either after 100 years of trying we are still haven't worked it out and are incapable of running a train system or, there isn't the political will to run a truly effective and convenient rail service. I credit Australians with enormous ingenuity and ability when we apply ourselves but I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Am I really asking for money, can't someone else do that, it seems so .... well - awkward!

I've been reading a little book called 'Audacity of Hope' by this fellow called Barack Obama. In it there is a sizeable section where he talks about his need to raise money to let voters know who he is and what he stands for. I ain't no Barack Obama but if it's good enough for him, I guess it's good enough for me.

My question is; why on earth would anyone give money to a political campaign? Right or wrong, I never have.

But then I'm only asking for a donation worth a couple of beers (though you could always throw in the pizza as well)! Click here to contribute.

Would it be money well spent?

Yes it would, more than ever before we need new ideas and new voices in our governing system. We do not even have to agree with them, but we desperately need another voice in our parliament to break the stand-off that is the seemingly intractable two party system.

You know the Greens want better transport, better health, better use of valuable resources (including the atmosphere), greater equality, more opportunities, in fact a better world. But then everyone promises that.

Can we deliver? Well not all that tomorrow, not this year, not even a whole election cycle, but we can move closer towards it everyday. We can do it by continuing to give voice to the back yard BBQ's, the late night raves, the dinner table conversations where Australians work this stuff out. We can continue to give voice to scientists, volunteers, young people, old people. We can continue to give voice to reason and passion wherever it is and whoever says it.

We can make a difference ... you can make a big difference. For us to deliver a simple one page message to the electorate, even hand delivered by volunteers will cost about $5,000. Any contribution, whether worth a night out or a Mercedes Benz will make a difference. If you can help, please do. Click here to contribute.