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

Confession #2 Green is more than a colour

The world has changed a lot since our parents voted for the major parties; green was still a colour then.

But now it’s a way of life. Green bags, say we’re thinking about the environment when we make our purchases, green power is a way of fuelling our energy needs sustainably, we even put out green waste to reduce landfill, and not too long ago a greenie was a ‘tree-hugger’ now they are environmental activists.

Being a Greens candidate is about providing people with a choice to have representatives that care about the long-term impact of our everyday choices.

The Greens aren’t afraid to stand up and say it’s time to change the way we do things. We’ve been saying it for a while, only now a lot more people agree. We’ve spent a lot of time developing policies too, and costing policies and we know that there is a way to have a future that we can live with.

There is the potential within this region to maintain the energy production focus without destroying our environment in the process. The Greens are about creating an alternative relationship between the State and its energy objectives. Greens believe in a jobs rich future driven by renewable energy technologies, their production and distribution throughout the country and the world.

The Greens already have people in the State Government who know how governments work. Governments can work by having Green issues on the agenda and by encouraging green policies that offer different way to think about our future. Our Upper House representatives Lee Rhiannon, Ian Cohen, Sylvia Hale have been putting out a different viewpoint and it makes a difference to what gets discussed, new thoughts, about a better future.

If you want to know the detail have a look at our policies, they are a great read because when you read them you sense there is hope. It’s a different paradigm, a different way of thinking about how we do things. It reminds me of the wisdom my 94 year old friend, tread lightly, use what you need, respect each other and don’t take what we have for granted.

We’ve taken water for granted for far too long, strange really when we live on the driest continent on earth. For a long time we thought about water as just coming out of a tap, now it can come out of a tank too. We need water, reliable and reusable. Tanks for toilets should be a priority. The Greens aim to support personal actions that make a difference.

In this election people might feel they’re a little green around the edges, a bit inexperienced in understanding the way Greens think. But this is an opportunity to learn about different policies that can affect the future in terms of more than election cycles.