Tuesday 2 August 2011

BE CYNICAL TO GREENS

It is time to be cynical about the Australian Greens Party and their involvement in the politics of the sovereign nation to the north.

This report is part of our media watch but this time in watching the Australian blog PNG Attitude.

2 May 2011 ... AUSTRALIAN GREENS LEADER, Senator Bob Brown, has returned to
Canberra ... KEITH JACKSON'S PNG ATTITUDE. WORDS & IDEAS FROM
THE PAPUA NEW ...asopa.typepad.com/.../brown-wants-inquiry-into-undersea-mining.html

22 May 2011 ... KEITH JACKSON'S PNG ATTITUDE. WORDS & IDEAS FROM THE
PAPUA NEW ... recent visit to PNG, Australia's Greens party leader, Senator Bob Brown, ...
asopa.typepad.com/.../png-pioneers-exploiting-the-oceans-riches.html - Cached - Similar

Senator Bob Brown leader of the Greens Party and leading gay activist has come to PNG on a phony war to talk about mining on the Madang- Sepik coast but surely knowing that nothing can be done in the face of the proprietorship of a Chinese company.

The balance of power in the Australian Senate means nothing here. There is no pressure whatever that can be brought to bear on the Australian company Highlands Pacific. Senator Brown has to admit he can do nothing. The Australian balance of power has met its match.

But while we are here, you might as well set up a Greens Party. If we are lucky, you might pick up a few members in the 2012 election from disgruntled voters in the LNG and Ramu Nico regions and in New Ireland base for Solwara 1.  The issue has to remain hot until the 2012 elections, even after the Court case.

The 24 women’s seats might bring us a few members enough to hold the balance of power. But we also want to become the balance in swinging the vote for the legislation on decriminalizing gay and lesbian sex.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex (LGBTI) | Bob Brown
Gay Marriage · Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Intersex (LGBTI).
Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown says the Greens will work hard with the next
...
bob-brown.greensmps.org.au/taxonomy/term/97/all - Cached - Similar

The balance of the Greens party has to be gay and lesbian. Brown told Radio Australia that the Greens are in the minority in PNG. That’s an overstatement.

So the Australian Greens party would set up a powder keg in the parliament if their aims were ever achieved. There would be a struggle among the heterosexual and lesbian women.

The lesbians would want to be in control of both parliamentary men and women. They would cut co-operation down to a minimum. There is one expatriate lesbian who would stand in the Wewak electorate if given half a chance. She would want to be leader of the women and enemy of the men.

But in the media today, we read of a workshop from UN Women that told participants that it is all about equal participation of men and women. They should work side by side for the betterment of society. They should have a holistic approach. Times are changing.

The leadership of UN Women had set up the anti-family strategy in the PNG AIDS campaign from 2001. Back then the approach was to be anti-man.

Women have to work with men. There has to be no anti-man nor anti-woman ideologies to come between them. The Australian gays and lesbians have to keep out. D'you hear Bob Brown?

INTERVIEW ON RADIO AUSTRALIA

BROWN: It's a global issues because all our oceans are interlinked and the marine heritage and we're talking here about some of the richest eco-systems in the world belong to everybody, as well as to the unfortunate locals who have tried so hard in the courts to stop five million tonnes of toxic waste being dumped into the ocean eco-system off the north coast of Papua New Guinea.

HILL: Is this a decision that would have taken place in an Australian court of a similar thing had been proposed?

BROWN: No, it simply would not happen in an Australian court and one has to doubt it would happen in a Chinese court. It's a Chinese company of course working on the back of an Australian company which first opened up this venture. They're both very happy with the outcome, because they can see the profits coming from the development of the Ramu nickel mine and the..... that comes with it.

But put the toxic waste into the marine eco-system, as well as I understand the sewerage from the mine system and who knows what else. It's an appalling indictment of modern technology being brought to Papua New Guinea without the safeguard that you would get in the home countries against this sort of destruction of marine eco-systems.

HILL: Well, this is a judgment about a tailings distribution system by a Chinese-owned company in Papua New Guinea. In what sense does this become an Australian issue?

BROWN: Well, of course, the mine was first mooted by an Australian corporation which still has that's Highlands Pacific, which still has nine per cent of the holdings and I understand can increase that to over 20 per cent again as the mine gets underway and becomes profitable.

It's very much an Australian corporation and an Australian responsibility and of huge interest to Australia. It points again to the need for Australian laws which require corporations from Australia to behave overseas in exactly the same way they would be required to if they were operating here in Australia under Australian law.

HILL: Well, your party the Greens, holds the balance of power in the Australian Senate. Are you going to put pressure on the Australian government to do something about this and if so, what?


BROWN: Yes, I have asked, I was in Madang in May. I came back to the Senate and spoke about just this mine and warned about it in the Australian Senate. But of course the Greens are a minority there and the big parties are so far turning their back on their responsibility to speak up about what is potentially an underwater Ok Tedi, exported again from Australia and an Australian mining company to the loss of the people who depend upon the environment, on this occasion a marine environment in Papua New Guinea.

HILL: So what is it you want the Australian government to do, what are you proposing?


 
BROWN: Well the Australian government should be firstly legislating to prevent Australian companies operating overseas from treating the environment in other peoples countries in a way that would be illegal home here in Australia.

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