With war looming, economic uncertainty and ongoing fears about the health of the environment, many people are searching for meaning, reassurance and hope. It seems some are looking to a party which was once the basket case of Australian politics, The Greens, for a new type of spiritualism. In the past year membership of the Queensland Greens has doubled. . . a trend which is being repeated around Australia and the world. . . evidence that the world is finally turning Green.
The Gold Coast Bulletin (Australia); February 22, 2003
AUSTRALIA: GREEN IS THE NEW RELIGION
By Suzanne Lappeman
With war looming, economic uncertainty and ongoing fears about the health of the environment, many people are searching for meaning, reassurance and hope. It seems some are looking to a party which was once the basket case of Australian politics, The Greens, for a new type of spiritualism. Suzanne Lappeman reports.
Drew Hutton has been arrested dozens of times, has paid incalculable sums in court fines and has unsuccessfully run for positions in all three levels of government on 10 occasions.
Such a colourful past would be a burden for most aspiring politicians, but for the convener, co-founder and face of the Queensland Greens it is a badge to be worn with pride.
The passion behind what some would consider a litany of misdemeanours and failures is what marks The Greens as so different from the three major parties which are fast becoming indistinguishable.
In the past year membership of the Queensland Greens has doubled from about 400 to 800. It is a trend which is being repeated around Australia and the world.
For Mr Hutton, 55, it provides vindication for him and his fellow activists, and evidence that the world is finally turning Green.
In fact, he predicted the party, which once trailed the now self-imploding Democrats, will be in government somewhere in Australia within a decade.
"Not in our own right, in coalition government, federal level is most likely, but it could happen in any state," said Mr Hutton this week.
"It could happen in NSW at the next election ... it could easily happen at the next election (next month).
"The polls are saying we could win three Lower House seats as well as two in the Upper House so it is not outside the realms of possibility that the Greens could either have the balance of power there or be in coalition government themselves."
So how does he explain the jump in support from the mainstream which has seen the party averaging 7-10 per cent nationally and membership surging in the past few years?
Mr Hutton said it was not just about the moral void within the major parties but a universal search for hope and a new spirituality which had arisen out of desperation.
"Green politics picks up on the mood for change which has been going around the world now for the past 20 years," he said.
"Look at the main social movements that have emerged ... feminism, conservatism, human rights, gay and lesbian rights and the rights of indigenous people ... it has been those social movements that have pushed the moral and political boundaries over the past 20 years and Green politics continue that.
"We see our identity as very much intertwined with the environment we are part of but also, if we are going to achieve a world where we are in harmony with that environment, we need to learn how to work in harmony with each other and that is based in a human rights, an equal opportunity view of the world not an authoritarian view of the world.
"Economic rationalism has simply been the last straw.
"It's in the way it views people, not as part of a family or a community or any sort of collective body, it just sees them as isolated individuals in competition with each other.
"The Greens represent a way out of that where we can recapture that solidarity we have with each other and create political systems so to enshrine that."
Even Mr Hutton is surprised by the diversity of his new members.
"Most of the people coming to us have never been involved in environmental issues in their lives," he said.
"They are coming to us because they see us standing strongly on social policies, whether it is refugees or a possible war against Iraq. A lot of people are saying we are the one source of hope, in politics at least.
"There is an interesting cross-section of people but they include some mainstream people, often in high positions in business or public service ... lawyers, doctors, academics and even former high ranking police."
Mr Hutton has been buoyed by the number of people backing The Greens, a party he helped found with Tasmanian Senator Bob Brown in 1992 after first forming the Brisbane Green Party in 1974.
His youthful activism was sparked by a strong sense of social injustice but, unlike many of his fellow students protesting at that time, he never lost enthusiasm.
"I started in the anti-war movement in the late 1960s because everyone else was and there was nothing unusual about that," he said.
"I was also idealistic wanting to make the world a better place so, I suppose, when a lot of people decided to stop protesting once the war was over a lot of people just went on with their work.
"I did too. I didn't become a full-time agitator or anything like that, I became a high school teacher and then an academic but I was also interested in democratic issues."
It was an unexpected direction for the boy who came from a conservative rural family.
"I am a boy from the bush, Chinchilla. My father was a butcher, my mother was a teacher and I went to boarding school because we didn't have a high school in my home town," he said.
"I was school captain at Brisbane Grammar School and a top sportsman and scholar and so on. I should have gone on to become a barrister or something reputable. My parents always harboured the hope I might do that sooner or later but, nevertheless, they always supported me."
His profile once saw him compared to self-confessed 'media tart' and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, but it is a comparison he rejects.
"I don't get arrested to be in the media. I get arrested if there is an issue I feel strongly about," he said.
So far his most satisfying wins ... a campaign to stop inner-Brisbane evictions around Expo '88, a toxic dumping inquiry which resulted in the Environmental Protection Act and his part in the development of the Regional Forestry Agreement ... outnumber his disappointments, most notably the failure to get decent environmental regulations for the mining industry.
But there have been so many issues over the years his memory has to be prodded by his co-author, party co-founder and wife, Libby Connors.
The couple live in a Queenslander they are redecorating in a foliage-fringed street in the inner-Brisbane suburb of West End where the neighbours all know each other and houses bear 'No War' banners.
His elder son, Kieren, also works for the Greens while another son, Joshua, is a peacekeeper up in Bougainville.
Mr Hutton is now contemplating writing books, as well as making another tilt at office with a senate spot at the next federal election, due in late 2004, the most likely target.
"When I first started contesting elections it was mostly to show people it could be done," he said.
"It was to make a point that it wasn't a terribly difficult thing to do, that you could come from a minor party position as we were and take them on.
"Now the lesson has been well and truly learned and if I stand again, it will be to win."
There are now Greens in all levels of Parliament but none in Queensland where the state's optional preferential voting system and Mr Beattie's Vote One strategy seriously disadvantages the party.
It is something The Greens plan to fight Mr Beattie on by threatening to withhold their preferences.
"What Mr Beattie has done is turn the voting system in Queensland into a first-past-the-post system and that is the most undemocratic system there is," said Mr Hutton.
The Greens will stand in about half the seats statewide at the next election and probably all of the nine seats on the Gold Coast.
"We have a presence on the Gold Coast. We received 13 per cent in Surfers Paradise (by-election) last time," he said. "We regularly get 8-10 per cent in those seats and we will do better this time.
"The Gold Coast is one area where we can do well, there are lots of issues and a strong youth vote.
"The challenge for us is to get those young people enrolled."
The Gold Coast branch will also decide within the next few months whether to run candidates in the local government election.
Can Mr Hutton see a time when he will no longer feel so driven?
"I have a good family and they keep me grounded," he said.
"That really helps with your longevity because it is a pretty rough game and your ego and morale can really suffer at times.
"But you have to believe in what you do and if you have people around you who are supportive then you can keep going."
He will need all that support to help The Greens fulfil the rather large goal they have set themselves.
"Our role is to change the world, or our part of it," he said.
"The challenge for the 21st century is to develop political and economic systems that harmonise with the constraints imposed on us by the natural environment, that is the main challenge for the 21st century."
'We need to learn how to work in harmony with each other' add your own comments
Political greens may have peaked. (english) pr 8:56pm Tue Mar 4 '03 comment#241981
I don't think the next US president could go wrong with the slogan,"It's the environment stupid."(maybe the one after but soon anyway)And the au greens might have peaked as the state where they started (Tassie)they are in slow decline.This may be temporary,(and I am certainly biased against representative political reformism being a green anarchist.)
The au greens also rely heavily on a leader,this is a weakness,it doesn't matter how good he is,(and he is exceptional I have to admit)this is a weakness in a system that kills persons that actually threaten to really change the things that need changing.Things like legalizing drugs,disarming and taking hard action against Monsanto's,Uranium Miners,etc.
So don't get your hopes up,if you want something done...do it yrsELF.
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=241895&group=webcast
