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Simon Cooper on extending the half-life of green politics.

Article Excerpt
Amanda Lohrey, Groundswell: The Rise of the Greens (Quarterly Essay No. 8), Melbourne, Black Inc., 2003 Tim Flannery, Beautiful Lies: Population and Environment in Australia (Quaterly Essay No. 9), Melbourne, Black Inc., 2003

It is a sad irony that along with any increase in environmental Understanding--the growing awareness that the fate of the planet is in our collective hands--we find a corresponding effort by many governments to undermine the sense that we 'share' anything at all. This is certainly the case in Australia, with the recent budget confirming that much of the Howard Government's domestic agenda lies in the destruction of the public sphere, in particular the health and education system. Presently, however, the government cannot get the health and education reforms through the Senate without some kind of support. The ALP can be ruled out here, having finally had brand differentiation thrust upon them, while for the Democrats all forms of 'dealing' probably remain off the agenda. What about the Greens? Unlikely perhaps, but we ought to remember Bob Brown's suggestion last year that the Greens might allow the government to sell off the rest of Telstra in return for some solid guarantees in relation to logging of old-growth forests. Would the Greens cut a deal?

What if the Greens were offered some solid environmental guarantees--perhaps a combination of new national parks, the signing of the Kyoto agreement, a ban on nuclear waste dumping or old growth logging? Some members of the Greens might want to take up such an offer, given the perilous state of the environment, the pragmatic recognition that health and education seem destined to become privatised and are not strictly 'green' issues anyway. Such a scenario illustrates the possible tension within the Greens between those who favour social justice or 'left' issues and those who wish to concentrate on strictly green ones. Brown's suggestion was rejected at the time, but the very fact that it was made suggests that such tensions may become more serious if the Greens gain further power. Indeed any connection between the notion of the 'public' and a commitment to the environment will have to be thought through if the Greens are to broaden their support base. The Greens will have to determine whether a radical social agenda is a necessary ingredient in fostering environmental sustainability. More importantly, and beyond the question of the Greens as a political party, the question remains--is sustainability enough? While sustainability--the idea that we can use the planet's...

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