{"id":7462,"date":"2013-08-04T08:04:51","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T22:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=7462"},"modified":"2022-05-02T00:22:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T14:22:00","slug":"meeting-the-greens-party-faithful-in-wills-and-a-curly-question-on-economic-transition-takvera-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/meeting-the-greens-party-faithful-in-wills-and-a-curly-question-on-economic-transition-takvera-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting the Greens party faithful in Wills and a curly question on economic transition @takvera reports"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr

Dr Tim Read, Greens Candidate for Wills, with Janet Rice and Senator Richard Di Natale<\/p><\/div>\n

By\u00a0John Englart <\/a><\/p>\n

8 August 2013<\/p>\n

I took the plunge on Friday night and went along to my first candidate launch in the Wills election campaign in Melbourne. It was organised by the Greens for their candidates Joanne Nevill, standing for the seat of Calwell, and Dr Tim Read for the seat of Wills. Victorian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale (not up for re-election this time), and Greens lead Senate candidate Janet Rice were also sharing the limelight.<\/p>\n

The launch was held in the Alehouse project on Lygon street, one of those trendy bars that have increasingly been sprouting in the ‘latte zone’ in the southern portion of the electorate, in Brunswick. As I outlined in my profile of Wills<\/a>, this area is strongly contested between the Labor Party and the Greens. The Liberal Party now poll third in the ‘latte zone’.<\/p>\n

It has been many years since I last attended such a meeting packed with party faithful. Many years ago I attended with my office colleagues the 1974 lunchtime Labor campaign launch with Gough Whitlam which packed out the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. After the dismissal in November 1975 I attended the Labor campaign launch held in the Sydney Domain amid tens of thousands of people.<\/p>\n

\"Labor's

Labor’s campaign launch in the Sydney Domain on 24 November 1975 (Own Collection)<\/p><\/div>\n

The launch tonight was a much smaller affair, packed with the local Greens party faithful, perhaps 50 people in the room. Moreland Greens Councillors Samantha Ratnam and Lenka Thompson were both there, as was Greg Barber, the Greens member for the area in the Victorian Legislative Council, and Alex Bhathal, Greens Party State President and running as the Greens candidate for Batman (See Batman seat profile<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I had advised Tim Read of my intention to come along as an active observer and citizen journalist. I knew this meeting was essentially for the party faithful to interact with their candidates and ask questions. Although I was made welcome, I was also aware in my mind of my role there was as a journalist to cover and report the event.<\/p>\n

I have over the last couple of weeks drawn up a list of questions to ask all the candidates standing in Wills. I knew I had the opportunity to ask perhaps one good question at this particular event. It would be unfair on the party faithful to impose any more. And after my first question they just might decide to eject this obvious interloper.<\/p>\n

Jo Nevill was first up discussing her candidacy in Calwell for the Greens (See her Facebook campaign Page<\/a>). She also MC’d the evening. She is a community development worker who works in Calwell, based on Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs of Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Sunbury and Tullamarine. Fairly safe Labor territory, with new housing estates, plus high rates of welfare dependancy and unemployment …and Ford’s Broadmeadows factory. The Greens vote in Calwell has been increasing over successive elections achieving a respectable 11.86% in 2010.<\/p>\n

A litmus question on dealing with economic transition<\/h3>\n

So, a litmus question. I could have asked a question on refugee policy or climate change, and I would have got a very thoughtful, but probably expected response. Asking such a question would be little better than asking a Dorothy Dixer<\/a> in parliament.<\/p>\n

So I chose an issue that is both local and national that deals with economic transition, employment and jobs. A bread and butter issue. A bit of a curly question. But sometimes it’s the difficult questions that elicit the interesting responses. How a person, or a political party, answers a difficult question is sometimes as important as the answer they give.<\/p>\n

The Greens have developed quite a thorough environmental and social policy manifesto. A question about employment and jobs, and closure of businesses, if anything, may be a weak point.<\/p>\n

After Jo Nevill had finished her introduction and her campaign manager had spoken, I politely asked my question, especially as it directly related to Jo’s electorate of Calwell. This isn’t my exact wording, but fairly close:<\/p>\n

“The announced closure of the Ford Motor vehicle factory in Broadmeadows in two years’ time will impact many workers and residents of Calwell as well as residents in Wills. What will you do regarding these impacts if you are the local MP and what should be done?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Not an easy question to have asked point blank at a meeting of the party faithful. But to her credit Jo made a valiant attempt:<\/p>\n

“The closure of Ford is like the closure of the Pacific Brands factory, is contributing to a lot of unemployment in the area and that is very unfortunate. That is why I am standing for the Greens because I think our policies; I think we can really help a lot of people in the area who have been made redundant.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just for background, the Pacific Brands clothing trade restructure hit Calwell hard in 2009 resulting in 298 job losses from the Coolaroo hosiery factory, while the executives of the company were giving themselves handsome pay rises<\/a>, tripling their income. They were declared as ‘obscene’ at the time, with both Labor and Liberal politicians condemning the increases at the time when the Global Financial Crisis was hitting hard. There were also redundancies at the time from the Ford Broadmeadows factory. (See The Age: Work heads offshore as Pacific Brands axes jobs<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I think the question made her uncomfortable. She diverted to her role as MC, saying “I have actually got a set of questions here that I would like to put to this panel. If that is okay? If we can just hold the questions for a moment, we do have some to get through…”<\/p>\n

\"Jo

Jo Nevill launching her campaign for the Greens for the seat of Calwell<\/p><\/div>\n

And so we heard from Dr Tim Read, the candidate for Wills, Janet Rice, the lead Greens senate candidate for Victoria, and Senator Richard Di Natale (See Facebook page<\/a>) on several questions asked by Jo Nevill and from the floor. Fairly easy Dorothy Dixer type questions, but eliciting some interesting responses, nevertheless. More of that later.<\/p>\n

Tim Read, to his credit, went back to my question again and asked Janet Rice to have a go at answering it. Janet Rice did a creditable job in supplying an answer off the cuff, arguing for the need for economic transition to a more sustainable business model. She explained that for 18 months she had worked with Hume Council in the electorate of Calwell, so she is familiar with the social issues of people in the electorate and the need for transition to sustainable business and programs to resolve the high unemployment in the area.<\/p>\n

Video Janet Rice on Ford Closure
\n