Extreme Greens candidate Jim Casey has an Abbott agenda
FOR Green Jim Casey, protest rejects the role of parliament in promoting positive changes that impact on real people, says Anthony Albanese.
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I JOINED the Labor Party because I wanted to help change people’s lives for the better. I formed this aspiration as a direct result of the fact that Labor governments had changed my life for the better by giving me the social supports and opportunities that allowed me to become the first person in my family to finish high school and go to university. I was never attracted to minor parties, such as the Greens political party, which seek to influence policy using protest. I’d rather make decisions than protest against decisions after they are made.
However, whatever my arguments with the Greens political party over the years, I have respect for the genuine approach of activists such as Bob Brown on issues such as the environment.
Their approach contrasts starkly with that of my opponent from the Greens in my seat of Grayndler, Jim Casey, which was exposed in a video of a speech he gave at a political forum in September, 2014.
In the video, which the Greens proudly uploaded on to YouTube, Mr Casey urges the Greens to focus on engaging the community in protest against the existing political system, rather than policy outcomes.
Extraordinarily for someone who describes himself as an opponent of conservatives, Mr Casey said:
“I would prefer to see Tony Abbott returned as prime minister with a Labor movement that was growing; with an anti-war movement that was disrupting things in the streets; with a strong, vital women’s movement; indigenous movement; and a climate change movement that was actually starting to disrupt production of coal. I’d prefer to see Abbott as prime minister in that environment than Bill Shorten without it.”
This single statement clarifies the difference between myself and Mr Casey.
I don’t want to see people oppressed so that they rise up. I want to work through the parliament to uplift people in my electorate and people right around the nation.
I don’t want bigger demonstrations.
I want better outcomes for people and improvements in our quality of life.
For Mr Casey, protest has become an end in itself.
Significantly, this approach rejects the role of parliament in promoting positive changes that impact on real people.
The Greens say they want action on climate change, that they want to protect workers’ rights and that they want to ensure Australians have access to a top-class education system.
Yet Mr Casey advocates the return of a Coalition government that proposes no real action on climate change, wants to undermine workers’ rights and is proposing massive cuts to education spending.
In modern Australia, politics cannot be about division. It must be about working together to achieve progress.
Mr Casey’s position will dismay genuine Greens voters who want action on progressive issues such as climate change and education. And it should scandalise Liberal Party supporters that people such as the Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger are talking about deals under which they would pass preferences to people such as Mr Casey in return for support in the seats they believe the Coalition can win.
In Grayndler, I have been concerned that the Greens have continued to preselect candidates who have spent more time in fringe, far-Left parties than they have in parliamentary-based parties, including the Greens.
They have not put forward real solutions to the challenges that confront the nation.
One simple example is the Greens’ attitude to aviation in Sydney.
The Greens want to shut Sydney Airport, which is one of the main job generators for Sydney.
They also oppose the construction of Badgerys Creek airport, which will create thousands of jobs in western Sydney.
They would leave the global city of Sydney without any aviation capacity.
That is simply absurd. It cannot be taken seriously.
And nor should so-called progressive candidates who publicly advocate the election of conservative governments.
Anthony Albanese is the Labor Member for Grayndler, in Sydney’s inner west
Originally published as Extreme Greens candidate Jim Casey has an Abbott agenda
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