Monday 19 March 2007

Confessions #5 The things you never get to say

Today was my final 'forum' live to air on the ABC. The topic, general issues affecting Lake Macquarie, this was good I thought, pure Green policies. So after a good night sleep, which I found to be the best thing for being able to think clearly I put together some notes, the big points I wanted to mention, the 'here's your last chance to bring it home baby' speil.

Alas not being public speaking savvy enough to twist questions to include my answers no matter what the question, and missing the opportunity when it arose to get in a few key points as well as the whole forum running out of time when it got to the really big issue of Life after Coal, I didn't get to mention a few things I really wanted mention so I'm putting what I wanted to say here.

  • There is a need for who ever is in government to start doing something about climate change, and our role in its perpetuation and expansion.
    We live on the coast and many of us live around a Lake rising sea levels will affect us all.
  • In Lake Macquarie we are complicit in climate chaos, and as the residents of this electorate we have a chance to say we want to start to look at a different future.
  • We can’t keep doing things the same way because that’s what’s got us into this predicament in the first place and unless we start planning and making a pathway towards a different energy future we are up the creek without a paddle and floating on a rising sea of uncertainty.
  • The thought of trying to relocate people or even to move back the building line because the cost of holding back the oceans has the potential to bankrupt our community.
  • We need to keep a watchdog in the Upper House that is beholden to the community not a company with a fat chequebook, or fast EFTPOS machine. Policies from a people’s perspective not for profit.
  • The Upper House crew Lee Rhiannon, Ian Cohen, Sylvia Hale have done a great job in keeping community issues in the spotlight. Lee Rhianinon has been supporting the Coal Communities to fight against the effect of coal extraction, dust and social dislocation on the communities around the Hunter, and highlighting the problems with the public private partnerships which results funding infrastructure to run at a profit not for people.
  • With John Kaye on the Upper House ticket we are giving people a chance to put someone in to the house of debate that actually has credentials and knowledge about renewable energy options and has spent his university career looking for solutions, he’s found them too, he has something to offer.
  • The Greens stand out from the rest because we don’t accept developer donations, it compromises the political process when one entity has more clout than thousands of individual voices.
  • The Greens are also a party that has policies, processes and the resources of a team of people who are all abiding by the same principles.
  • A Green vote is about making a statement to whoever is in power that you want the major parties to do something about climate change, you want the infrastructure and services to make living in Lake Macquarie viable for the future, that want your society to be more socially just.
  • It’s an opportunity to send a clear message that the electorate doesn’t want to be taken for granted anymore. Lake Macquarie provides a significant amount of state revenue through coal and energy production and what we have to show for it is one of the most impoverished health services in the region, ineffectual public transport and an environment that increasingly compromised by massive development proposals.

We have reached a critical point in time where every year of political indecision and inaction digs us deeper into a black coal hole that’s going to be harder to climb out of.

We need political leadership to set a new agenda and support innovation.

We need to do things differently.

The Greens are thinking and doing politics differently.

Vote for tomorrow, today

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